


Nightshade

by Freyjabee



Series: Somnium [2]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - Police, Angst, Drug Addiction, F/F, F/M, Multi, Murder Mystery, Organized Crime, Recreational Drug Use, Romance, mafia, sex trade
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-05-08 23:08:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 27
Words: 144,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14704395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Freyjabee/pseuds/Freyjabee
Summary: Another killer's hit Magnolia's streets and all of the threads in this recent string of murders seem to lead in one direction.





	1. Chapter 1

**_I: Juvia_ **

Running narcotics in the city was never easy. Doing it for _Tante_ Eileen while trying to get on her good side again was even _worse._ Juvia wasn't a runner. Not by trade. She was a singer. She was a server. She was a girl that did her best work on her back. She was Eileen's whipping girl because _Tante_ Eileen wasn't sure if she was still loyal to _Tante_ Kyouka and Juvia… she didn't know, either.

Unlike her mother, _Tante_ Erza was nice enough. She didn't put Juvia down. She didn't swear. She didn't do much of _anything_ , really, except scheme and lay with the bartender and escort Mirajane. Did Erza suspect that Juvia didn't _know_ what they whispered about in the room next door when the lights got low and their clothes came off? Perhaps not. _Tante_ Erza was good, sure, but she was _new._ Juvia collected her secrets and she kept them because that's what good whores did when they wanted to stay off the map long enough to figure out which route was the _best_ route.

Today, Juvia took the shipment stamped with a brown recluse, the same spider that was tattooed on her neck, to the old automotive shop on Jesper Street. It wasn't the most inconspicuous meetups she could think of but _Tante_ Eileen and thusly _Tante_ Erza never cared much about what their runners faced. Let the dogs sniff out the holes for the coyotes, why not, while the wolves sat on their thrones.

She came out of the woods on foot in a pair of shin-high boots and tights, the mornings were cold now, and adjusted the backpack on her jacket-clad shoulders. It wasn't a very _big_ shipment that she carried. Hardly worth the run at all, really, considering the kinds of deals Somnium _usually_ made. There was a time when Juvia was more suspicious of the make work like this but it had been a long time between fixes. _Tante_ Eileen was holding out on her and so was everyone else on her orders. Aside from that, though, Aria started school a few weeks ago and Juvia wanted to get her something nice. There had been a purple Sparkle My Little Pony backpack that had caught her eye the _last_ time Juvia had dared to take her into Costco, brave only because Kyouka was by her side and Gray was in jail for a murder he hadn't committed but had confessed to, and she would give _anything_ to have the thirty dollars it cost to buy Aria that bag. _Anything._

_Tante_ Eileen promised that it would be purchased and delivered; she just had to do this job.

Juvia checked her surroundings before she stepped foot on the broken concrete driveway. There was nothing but highway and treeline for as far as the eye could see; northern forest that was good for blueberry growing, northern highway that carried transport trucks full of food and supplies bound for the northern territories. Nothing else. No conspicuous cars in the parking lot, no cars on the road. She hiked the bag high again and scampered across the lot, feeling like the criminal she pseudo- _was_. Prostitution was legal in Magnolia. Drug-running was _not._

No one stopped her as she skidded to a halt beneath the _Imperial Automotive_ awning. The white plaster building threw sunlight and blinded her. She held her breath and her backpack as a huge _Dempster's Bread_ transport rumbled down the highway, trying to make herself one with the building. When it had passed, she let out all the air in her lungs and tried the man door for the ancient oil shop. It opened with a squeak and a groan. Dust fell from the ceiling and went into her hair. Juvia held off on brushing it out, focusing instead on surveying the building.

There were tired lift jacks, a tire or two, some dusty bottles of engine oil, grease stains on the floor, a grease gun, the tube descending from the ceiling in a coiled mess. To the right was another man door and beyond that was a desk that had, at one point, been made of plywood. Now it was sagging and rotted through, hard northern winters taking their toll on everything. She breathed in mildew and crisp autumn air. She breathed in aftershave. Juvia was tense even before turning but upon doing so and seeing _his_ gnarled and exasperated expression, she thought her heart would explode. She backed away from him quickly even as Gray grabbed her wrist. It wasn't the first time he'd taken her hard enough to bruise.

"Ow!" she chirped and Gray loosened his hold on her immediately, as he _hadn't_ last time when he wanted her attention and all she wanted to do was get away from him. It seemed he was ashamed of the handprint he left on her arm; Juvia took advantage of his contriteness and twisted out of his hold. She didn't get far, turning into the chest of his partner. He pushed her back roughly; Gray was there to keep her from falling. Juvia felt all of the fight leave her system in a weak _whoosh_ that could have been defeat. She would not cry. Would _not_. It was a close thing as Gray stripped her of the backpack she wore. He rooted through the contents right then and there in his black Narcotics uniform, moving methodically and professionally. She almost remembered why she loved him then. He was so detached. She almost remembered why she hated him, too.

"Where's the rest of it?"

"That's all," Juvia replied.

"This is a long run from the city for _that's all_."

"But it's true."

Gray scowled up at her, trying to see the lies in the truth. Juvia licked her dry lips and Gray thought he latched onto a nervous twitch. "Get the team to search the area," he told his partner. "Try to dig up her car and any associates she brought with her."

"On it."

"It was just me," Juvia said. "And my car is empty."

Gray ignored her like she thought he would. "I'll get her loaded and bring her down to the station."

"Yeah." His partner made to do his bidding and Juvia was strapped with a pair of handcuffs that were this side of tight. She bit back her complaints.

_Imperial Automotive's_ door slammed and Gray got on his phone, a huge satellite contraption because there wasn't much signal so far north. He called in the bust to head office, then got on the phone to whoever had dropped him and his team off there likely hours and hours before. When he hung up, he grabbed Juvia by the elbow and corralled her toward the exit.

"You're a lot more cooperative than my last bust," Gray murmured when she hurried her steps to match his long ones.

"Should I fight?" Juvia returned.

"I don't want for things to get ugly."

Hilarious. "They are already."

He stepped out into the sunshine and the light was kind to him. There were a few crow's feet by the corners of his eyes and his mouth had worry lines, there was the odd shot of grey in his hair that hadn't been there before Aria was born four years before, but he was handsome. Heartbreakingly so. Juvia turned her eyes out toward the highway where a black Yukon roared over the northern road to their position. It was safer that way. Not looking at him. When the truck stopped, Gray opened the back door and ushered her inside. She wished he'd waited for another vehicle but he climbed into the front seat. There was a cage separating them and he remained facing forward while one of his men drove but Juvia had a clear view of the back of his head. She looked at him shamelessly and wondered at all of the things she'd somehow lost.

* * *

The MPD was as monstrous as ever. A building made of old and new. Skylights kept it bright when the floors and walls were made from deep wood and black tile, the bustle of every day traffic kept it alive. Juvia counted the railings as she ascended the stairs to the interrogation room. Fifty-seven. Eyes were on her, some from the public, some from the police department, men and women that had seen plenty of criminals come and go. Not her, though. She'd bet she and Gray were the talk of the town. Narcotics frontman Gray Fullbuster and his renegade addict baby momma. She'd spent years sliding under the radar during Kyouka's rule at Somnium, or Dreaming Tree as it was colloquially known on the streets, a bordello and a front for one of the biggest cartels in Magnolia, second only to Acnologia's _Prodigure_ , but here she was, tripping on her feet, and _why_? Someone had ratted over a small shipment of fentanyl.

At the top of the stairs, Captain Milkovich stopped their progress, her hand on Gray's arm just a little _too_ intimate. Juvia had seen enough to know when two people were fucking but trying to keep it secret. Her voice was caramelized sugar; Gray leaned into her subconsciously. Juvia hated her immediately for the way she wrapped him up around her finger without doing a damn thing. She hated her further for the way that she had everything _together_. For the way that she saw Aria more than Juvia did. For the way that she was…

Better.

In every sense of the word. Just _better_. Ultear Milkovich didn't stare at the fentanyl patches on _Tante_ Eileen's desk for hours fighting the urge to stick one on her skin just so she could feel _nothing at all_. Just because she'd done it too many times before and couldn't seem to _stop_. It didn't _chew_ at her. Ultear Milkovich didn't kneel at Eileen Belserion's feet, hoping that the _Tante_ was feeling charitable that day and would _not_ stick her downstairs with _Tante_ Kyouka— _not_ Tante, Juvia reminded herself, _not anymore,_ just Kyouka. Disgraced Kyouka—and punish her as she did Kyouka for betraying them all to Acnologia.

"Do you want me to call in someone else?" Ultear whispered. Juvia bet that she imagined she was being secretive; there wasn't enough space between the three of them for that.

"It's fine," Gray said.

"This is a conflict of interest," Ultear maintained.

"I can do it, Ul. Doesn't mean anything to me," Gray said. He had perfected a blank face; Juvia knew he was a _liar._ It meant something. It had to. He didn't tighten her cuffs too much because it meant _nothing_. He didn't leave his handprint on her wrist months ago for _nothing_. "Trust me."

"Alright," Ultear said without as much fight as Juvia _expected_. Maybe they were in love? Or maybe it was a ploy to make Juvia feel comfortable. Did Ultear suspect that Gray could get information from her that someone else wouldn't be able to?

Whatever the reason, Ultear stepped aside and Gray took Juvia into an interrogation room that was all too familiar. The walls were dark but there were so many bright fluorescent lights hanging off chains that the room didn't seem dingy. She could perfectly see the concrete floor stained with old blood. She imagined that it belonged to one of the officers—beating prisoners was frowned upon these days. On the opposite side of the room was one-way glass. Juvia stared at it, trying to see through; of course she could not.

"Sit," Gray told her. Juvia took one of the chairs bolted to the floor and leaned back. Gray sat opposite her and did the same. "Here we are again." His voice was full of disappointment.

"This is the only way I get to see you," Juvia said offhandedly, half-sarcastic, half-genuine and was _glad_ when he recoiled some. Good. He recovered, though.

"You know how this works." Those simple words cut deeply; Juvia scowled and Gray was careful to keep his triumphant expression under wraps. "I'll go over everything anyway—"

"Just go," Juvia said.

Gray looked like he was going to go into the details anyway. Then he sighed and the interrogation began. He was right, she'd been through all this before, for the same reasons. She'd spent a few weeks in jail for it, even, and had anticipated Gray's line of questioning. She hadn't anticipated the way he'd look over his notebook with something anguished in his eyes when she didn't tell him what he wanted to hear—where the drugs came from, where they were going. She didn't anticipate the way he sat back when he was done. The way he said, "You're free to go, Juvia."

"I'm…?"

"Good to get out of here. Go home. I don't want to look at you again."

She was wary, not ecstatic. "Why?"

"Because a few units of the patch aren't enough to justify clogging up the jail cells."

She chewed her cheek before speaking. "If you think I'm going to lead you to the supply—"

Gray stood so he could sit in front of her, one leg on the ground, the other on the table. "I know it comes from Somnium," he said. His eyes were on the spider tattooed on Juvia's neck. "I know something else, too, that I think you should know."

Her curiosity was strong. So was her wariness. "What's asking going to cost me?"

"Nothing," Gray retorted. "I'll tell you for free. The Spider sold you out."

"Pardon?"

"The Spider. Eileen Belserion. It was her that made the call. It was her that told me to set up at Imperial."

Juvia's response was immediate. "She just called you up and said _Hey, Detective, this girl is running drugs up north, better catch her and her tiny supply. Few hundred bucks, it'll be worth the effort._ Sounds legit _."_

"That's not exactly how it happened. She led me to believe that there was a _larger_ shipment which makes me think that either you were a decoy, or she wants you out of the picture, Juvia."

His words sunk in. "If that's true and you let me go…"

Gray didn't fill in the blanks for her and Juvia was afraid to. She had to ask herself if she was more afraid of Eileen Belserion or jail. She had to believe that she was still useful to the Spider. If she bailed now, she'd be killed, but if she went back… maybe Eileen would appreciate her mettle and forgive her for her association with Kyouka.

Maybe.

She rose and held out her hands. Gray unlocked her handcuffs; the tips of his fingers were calloused on her forearms and palms, but gentle. Juvia felt his eyes on her back all the way out of the Constabulary.

* * *

This side of Magnolia was trapped in soft decay. There were flowers on rusty lampposts, there were murals on the sides of decrepit buildings, professionally painted ones. The old town train station, the Ojibwa chief in a time before industry gripped the city, the old post office's side painted with a road traveled by a horse pulling a buggy.

It was all surface gloss. There was unkemptness to it all; the beauty truly faded when one stepped out of the main road and into the alleys behind the buildings. Away from the light and into the shadow where the dumpsters were scrawled upon with graffiti, where the garbage gathered against soggy fence posts, where a knock on the right apartment door would get you almost anything you wanted, a rainbow of pills, bowls full of herb, everything from salvia to the tamer green of marijuana.

Juvia felt a twitch in her muscles as she navigated the familiar area to a corner where the police didn't often patrol. Longing, that's what that feeling was. Hankering. She wanted her head to spin, she wanted her muscles loose, she wanted to _feel_ nothing while she did this. So badly.

_Breathe._

Because she needed to focus. Typically, she didn't partake in such a dangerous task—wandering around late at night, propositioning those that would rather risk paying a prostitute on the streets than go through the official channels, enjoying their experience at an official bordello under the rule of a registered Matriarch.

Juvia supposed she could go to Somnium and beg _Tante_ Eileen and _Tante_ Erza the use of one of the upstairs rooms. That would have been fine. Somnium would reap a percentage of her profits, as was the way, and she wouldn't be taking her life into her hands, but _Tante_ Eileen would never accept the money Juvia made in her establishment as payment for the money she lost when she didn't sell the fentanyl. It wouldn't matter that the drug was confiscated during an arrest, that profit was lost and it needed to be repaid.

She parted with the blue coat she wore, though mid-October was _cold_ , and adjusted her dress so it sat low around her chest and high on her legs. She shed her tights, too, bundling those up with her coat and tucking them behind a blue recycling bin. When she was ready, she stepped out into the setting sun, trying to milk whatever warmth she could from the fading rays, and prepared for a long night.

She had men come and go, ones that wanted everything from a grope to the full package. Some tried to short change her, others tried to not pay at all, some overpaid with a smile and a wink.

The moon was high and Juvia's pockets were far from full when the headlights of a truck pulled down the alley. She wished there was warmth to be had in the light's bright glow but there was only October's bitter wind and the rustle of leaves hustling down the street, dekeing between the truck's tires.

The vehicle pulled up beside her and the window came down; hot air rushed out and made goosebumps rise on Juvia's arms. She rested her forearms on the windowsill and leaned in. The greeting she'd been harvesting dried up on her tongue when she realized she recognized the person sitting behind the wheel. She leaned away without a word. Gray's voice called her back.

"Get in, Juvia."

She almost listened but caught herself. "No, thanks."

He'd always been bossy. "Get in or I'm calling you in."

"What are you going to say? You saw me standing in the Stacks?"

"That you're trying to sell yourself on the street in the Stacks."

"That's a big assumption." She started walking away. Gray found his accelerator and followed her.

"That's the only reason girls like you come by here. Stop with the games and get in."

"Why?" she asked viciously.

"So I can drive you back to Somnium," he said immediately. When that didn't stop her, he said, "It's not safe out here."

"Looked safe enough to me until you showed up."

Gray didn't let her words cut him. Pity. "It wasn't so long ago that the Cardinal killings stopped."

"That man is dead and his associates are behind bars," she said succinctly.

He huffed exasperatedly. "Juvia—"

She reeled on him. "I don't care, Gray. I'm more afraid of what's going to happen to me when I go back to Somnium then I am of the off chance of some client getting rough. Now, if you don't mind, I have a lot of work to do before I can even consider returning to _Tante_ Eileen."

He didn't just recoil at her harsh tone, he slowed down. Juvia thought that was the end of it. He revved the engine and caught up to her again a moment later. "I can help you," he said, and he sounded much more sincere. "You won't have to deal with the weirdos that can't get what they want in the bordellos."

"Oh, will you put me into protection for selling a few cheap secrets?" she asked sarcastically.

"If that's what you need."

"I'll be dead before the first day is done." _Tante_ Eileen's reach was far. Maybe as far as the Black Dragon's. "What I need is money, not protection. Unless you're handing it out, leave me alone."

Gray said again, "Get in."

"Fuck off."

His voice snapped against her like a whip. "Juvia. Just get the fuck in. I'll—"

Juvia snapped back. "You'll what?"

He looked up and down the back alley, into the windows of the apartments above. He got an all clear so he felt safe enough to open the console and pull out a wad of cash. "Give you this. To pay your debts." Juvia stopped in her tracks, and the Sierra stopped as well. She reached into the cab for the roll; he held it back. "Get in."

She'd gotten into stranger's vehicles for less. What was getting into Gray's? She climbed in and Gray, true to his word, passed it over. He put his foot down then and accelerated. Juvia didn't panic. She counted the bills. It was enough. She clutched the money, feeling like it was a lifeline, and chewed her cheek. "Where are we going?"

Gray stared at the road. "I don't know."

"You don't know?" There was a wobble in her voice. Sometimes, he scared her and she couldn't hide it. He was too intense. Unpredictable when he was under pressure.

"Away from here."

"You're just going to drive forever?"

"No. Of course not," Gray said.

"Then? Back to Somnium?"

He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "Somnium is poison."

"It's my home."

"You should leave."

"And go _where_?" she asked. "Maybe Daisy's is hiring. Oh, wait, they don't like girls with a runny nose."

His jaw flexed. "You need to get off that shit."

"And you need to mind your own business."

"I would if Lyon didn't tell me he got a call two weeks ago about a girl passed out in the bathroom of a fucking Starbucks, ODing on _shitty_ powder cut with fentanyl. Sound familiar?"

She'd been doing _fine_ until that moment but now all Juvia could think about was the burn down her nose, the drip in her throat. She took a deep breath into hollow-feeling lungs. That didn't help. She dug her fingernails into her legs. Gray noticed. He reached across the console and took her hand away from her leg. She tore out of his grasp and tried to make herself small by the window.

"Juvia…"

"Stop the car and let me out."

Maybe he had a hearing problem; he didn't even feather the breaks. "I'm worried about you."

"I'm fine. Everything is fine."

"You will be. If you keep trying." The silence that webbed between them lasted for all of ten seconds. "Aria said to me this morning that she wanted to see you."

It was a ploy to distract her and to make her feel better. It worked. Juvia lifted her head away from the window. "She did?" The last time she'd seen her daughter, Aria had been by her side in Somnium, seeing too much, hearing too much. Aria was all too excited to go back with Gray when he was cleared. It almost killed Juvia. She had to admit, though, that this was better. She loved her daughter enough for that.

"She loves you."

"She does?" The words were out before Juvia could stop them.

Gray didn't look at her; he squeezed the steering wheel until his knuckles were white. "Of course she does. Did you want to visit?"

"Yes."

His shoulders dropped their tension as soon as he had something to focus on, a destination. "Then that's where we'll go."

She felt the hot press of tears against her eyes. She choked them all back and watched the world go by. Buildings, bus stations, houses. The world opened up and the city fell away; trees took the place of skyscrapers. They traveled to the sound of Pink Floyd's _Brain Damage_. Juvia mouthed the words; it was her song of choice when she was digging her nails into her arm hard enough to draw blood while in the grips of withdrawal. It helped her now, too. She didn't look Gray's way, she didn't sob into her hands, she didn't think how fucked up she was, in too deep and trying to keep her head above the water. She thought about her daughter.

The truck slowed. Juvia looked up and watched as the white brick bungalow came into view. She'd never lived there, it was bought long after she gave up and gave into _Tante_ Kyouka, but looking at its siding, the yard her daughter romped in with the little fluffy dog that went everywhere with her, she wished that it could have been hers.

Those were wants for a different girl.

But hell. As soon as the truck door slammed behind Gray, the front door burst open and Aria came spinning out, Weiner the little spaniel at her heels, Juvia thought she'd give anything to have this.

"Daddy—" Aria's words died off as soon as she laid eyes on Juvia. Wiener had been barking in joy, now he barked because there was someone he didn't know on his property. Juvia held her breath. Aria squealed, "Mummy!" and started running again. When she hit Juvia's legs, Juvia thought she'd fall over, off balance physically and metaphorically.

"Hi, baby."

Aria peppered her with a thousand questions in a matter of seconds. Juvia could barely keep up and fell off the track completely upon seeing the babysitter in the doorway. She was young and stared at Juvia even while she talked to Gray, who was handing out money again. She disappeared into the house and reappeared a second later with her school bag and purse. She called goodbye to Aria, who waved enthusiastically, and then she was gone.

Gray said, "Come on, Aria. It's dinner time."

"But Mommy—"

"Is coming to eat with us," Gray replied without looking at Juvia for confirmation. They hadn't talked about dinner. Juvia thought she could use it, though, probably, because she couldn't remember the last time she ate or felt hungry for anything, really. She let Aria take her hand and bring her inside the modern bungalow. It was nice. Simple. Cleaned, though there was evidence of Aria's presence—a toy box in a play room off the foyer that had been left open because she had too many things. Juvia simultaneously felt stupid for wanting to get her the sparkle backpack and justified—everyone else had given her things but Juvia—she hadn't much to contribute.

"Let's go wash up," Gray told Aria. Aria released Juvia's hand and raced down the hall. Gray followed behind. Juvia lingered, migrating into the toy room where she gazed down at the toy box. Some items she recognized. My Little Pony's, Peppa Pig, and a Batman doll. There was a picture taped in the top left corner of the box lid—Aria, Gray, and Ultear Milkovich at an amusement park. Gray held Aria and didn't touch Ultear at all, but Juvia felt cold and bitter. This woman was living the life Juvia couldn't.

"Juvia?" Gray asked from the doorway.

"Hm?"

"Dinner is on the table. Laki set it out before she left."

Juvia left the box and hopefully, the bitter expression on her face, and found a smile somewhere in her repertoire. She did what she hadn't in years: sat down to a family meal in a kitchen that looked like it climbed out of the colonial era, all pale pine cupboards, burnt pine floorboards. Rustic. Nice. Gray did well with his salary, apparently.

Dinner was lasagne. Juvia took a small piece, afraid to eat too much just in case it didn't sit well with her. It didn't always happen, but sometimes when she went too long without a hit.

Aria sat next to Juvia and Juvia distracted herself by asking her about school. Junior Kindergarten. Aria spilled everything. There was a boy in her class that was her best friend. They played with a farmhouse just like Daddy's. Her teacher was nice. She tied Aria's shoes if they came undone. They got three recesses and in the play yard, there was a purple dinosaur that rocked back and forth when it was sat in. Her best friend got sick in it yesterday and the teacher needed to spray it out.

"Aria," Gray scolded.

"It's true."

"We're having dinner."

"I'm done," she informed him.

"There's still stuff on your plate," Gray said.

"This is Weiner's. See?" She climbed off the booster seat before Gray could get another word in and plopped the plate on the floor. Wiener scampered over.

" _Aria_."

"He's hungry." The food was already gone in the spaniel's belly; the plate was clean. "He says thank you and—" She grabbed Gray's arm and tugged him down for a wet and lasagna-filled kiss on his cheek. Juvia laughed, truly laughed. Aria joined her.

Gray's protest fizzled. "You're a butt." Aria tried to run away. "Hang on." Gray grabbed her up while she squealed and laughed and held her while he wiped her face with a damp cloth he had already at the table. This was a common occurrence, apparently. When he was done, she squirmed out of his hold and tore out of the kitchen with her shirt up around her belly button. Juvia raised her brow and laughed again.

"Don't let her energy fool you. She'll be asleep in thirty minutes," Gray said. "Guaranteed." He picked up the plate off the floor and shooed out the begging dog. He took Juvia's, too. She'd eaten it all. Juvia watched him go to the sink and do dishes. It was so domestic.

"Did you want a coffee?" Gray asked over the sound of the water.

"Yes," Juvia said just because. She wanted to linger there longer. Gray read her mind.

"I'll call you a cab when Aria's in bed, if you want to stick around until then."

"Yeah?"

"Sure. You can put her down, too. She'd like that, I think."

"Okay." Juvia fed off the scraps he gave her and pretended that she was unbothered by it. Why the generosity? Why think about it at all. She dragged her fingers over the lacquered wood counter. It was so, so nice. Nicer than almost anything she'd seen. Nicer than she was good for. Juvia made a fist. It gave her the courage to blurt, "I'm buying Aria a backpack."

Gray stopped filling up the kettle to look at her. The expression on his face tried to break her apart: hopeful but skeptical. Hadn't she promised before to buy things but it just never worked out, that look said. Yes. This was different, though. Kyouka wasn't here breathing over Juvia's shoulder. She wasn't feeding her long white lines. She wasn't controlling everything.

"It's purple," Juvia said. "And—sparkly. For Sparkle. It's a pony. One of the My Little Pony's. Aria's favourite. She's okay. The pony, I mean. Aria is great."

He turned off the water and put the kettle back on its element. "I'm sure she'll love it."

"We found it. In the store, Aria and I." She was blathering. "I wanted it to be a surprise then so—I didn't get it." Gray saw through the lie dusted in white powder, she was sure. Juvia didn't care. "I thought she could put her lunch in it and maybe extra sweaters in the winter. Socks. I don't know if it's big enough for boots, too, but—"

Gray finally stopped her. "Juvia. Relax."

She was always running at high-speed and Gray was always telling her to relax. The routine was so familiar that Juvia had to stop for a whole new reason. It hurt. Gray, too, seemed to feel that ache. His face pinched and his knuckles turned white on the kettle and he stopped talking.

Aria came back into the kitchen. "Daddy, it's Thomas Time."

Relief broke across Gray's face. "Yeah, sweetie."

She looked at Juvia as she asked, "Can Mommy come, too?"

Gray answered for Juvia. "Yeah. Sure."

Aria looked at Juvia expectantly. Juvia got her stiff legs to move and took her daughter's out held hand. There were no calluses on Aria's skin. No telltale hardships she'd had to endure just yet. There was just the softness and the innocence of youth. Juvia was selfishly glad in that moment that Aria didn't seem to know what was going on during her short stay at Somnium. Innocence should be treasured.

The living room was like the kitchen, too, too nice. There were two large and comfortable looking couches, pushed together in an L shape; there was an ash coffee table, and a large screen TV. On the other side of the room was a huge window that looked out into the forest. Aria took her to one end of the couch. Juvia settled down, Aria got in beside her and held out her hand for a trailing behind Gray. He sat on Aria's other side and it almost felt nice. Like it could be right. Like Juvia could belong.

Thomas and Friends came on the TV with Gray's help. Juvia pulled Aria into her side and rested her head on top of Aria's. She smelled like blackberry shampoo. Juvia closed her eyes and breathed her in.

* * *

A blanket resting over her body pulled her gently from sleep. Juvia blinked. It was dark in the room. The TV was off now, so were the lights. Gray knelt beside the couch, illuminated by the light of the moon bleeding through the large window. He was like a ghost with at-odds hair, raven's wing locks tousled out of the hold the pomade had it in. He'd been shoving his hands through it too many times. What was he thinking about when he did that? She used to know.

"Is it late?"

"Yeah," Gray whispered. "I didn't mean to wake you, sorry."

"Aria..."

"She's in bed. She fell asleep just after you did," Gray responded. "I watched the rest of Thomas by myself."

"Sorry."

He looked at her for a long time. "You were tired, I guess."

She hadn't been sleeping well lately. Juvia kept the tidbit to herself and propped herself up. Gray was there waiting, watching her as she pulled up the neckline of her slipping dress. "Thanks for spending some time with her."

"I miss her," she said.

A look came over him. Pained. He asked, "How long have you been clean for?"

She wanted to lie. She couldn't. "Days." And not necessarily by choice.

He gathered up her hands and squeezed them together in his own, eyes the colour of over-burdened storm clouds searching hers. She could feel his hot exhale and imagined that he was breathing life into her. If only he could stay that way, she might be okay. "That's good." She smiled weakly and Gray opened up a bit more, saying, "I miss this. I miss you."

Such a simple admission; it made her heart beat and bleed. Gray wasn't thinking about Ultear just then, he was thinking about _her_ , Juvia _._ The Juvia that used to be. Juvia wanted to be that person again, very, very badly. This, right here, was the closest she'd come to the old, dead her. She leaned forward. His mouth was familiar and his kiss chaste. Only his breathing betrayed him; short. Juvia came back, trying to give him a chance to figure out if he wanted to continue. Gray followed her back into the couch. It almost hurt, that kiss. He was too rough; it had been too long since the _last_ time they'd done this. Juvia didn't care. She took everything he gave out and more. His chest pushed against hers, rising and falling with harried breaths. Juvia grabbed his forearms and held him tightly. She could feel his pulse move in his veins, she could feel his desperation. It ached in time with her own.

Gray's mouth slowed and eventually stopped. Juvia waited, feigning patience as he touched her hair, smoothing it back from her face, hands continuing down over her shoulders. He started again, relearning her body and seeing something she never did when she looked in the mirror. His voice came out hoarse. "Juvia?"

"Yes?"

He hesitated. Thinking about his words, his actions. Not too deeply. "Did you want to go upstairs?"

There had been a nervousness building in Juvia's stomach, she'd been afraid he was about to tell her to go. It fled. "Okay."

Gray rose from his crouch and took her hand. She relied on him to lead her through his house, a little bit because she was afraid of tripping in the unfamiliar territory, a little because if he was going to crumble the foundations of what he built here, Juvia wanted him to be the one to swing the hammer, not her.

Every other stair creaked. Gray moved carefully; Juvia mimicked his steps. At the top of the stairs were three doors, the one to the right was the very last of the bunch, and the only one with the door open. Juvia searched for Aria's room and found it at the opposite end, a soft light coming from its bottom. A nightlight. Gray pulled her along into the darkness that was his room and closed the door, taking the sight away from her. Now there was only shadow, the smell of his sheets, and aftershave faint in the air.

Gray didn't bother with the lights so Juvia couldn't pick out the particulars of his room—pictures? Decorations? What kind of bedspread did he have? It all remained a mystery. Gray stepped into her and she thought it didn't matter. He still felt so strong wrapping his arms around her middle; he could almost envelop her twice; she was too skinny. He noticed; Juvia knew he noticed. He didn't lecture her. There were times when Juvia thought she was the only problem. Then he'd treat her like this—like she was the drug he couldn't stop thinking about—and she'd remember that they were both addicts.

Gray brought her to the bed and pushed her down by her shoulder. He joined her after undoing his pants and letting them sit loosely on his hips. His weight settled on her and she wrapped her arms around his back, holding him near. He kissed her on her neck over the spider tattoo and it was like a poor welding of old and new. Who she was meeting who she used to be. It left her almost crippled, his soft press of lips, his tongue sliding on her skin, his breath the gentlest of hammer strikes, slamming her into a place where she could barely breathe and only felt.

Juvia got her hands between them and pulled her dress down, needing to move forward from this place just to prove that she could. Her breasts came out and Gray occupied himself with those. Nothing changed, not really, those were still his favourite. Juvia worked around him and unbuttoned his shirt. She missed a button and had to come back. Once it was undone, Gray sat up so he could get the material off his shoulders. His pants could remain where they were; they weren't that much of an obstacle. Juvia bothered only to pull them down another few inches, making it easier to pull him out. He only let her jerk it without a condom, holding her back when she tried to slide down and put it in her mouth. She decided not to be too hurt by it.

"Here." He leaned back while she slid her hands up and down his length and searched blindly through his nightstand. He came back; Juvia listened to the sound of plastic rustling. He put the condom on in the dark. How many other girls had he had with the lights out? She knew he frequented Black Glove, another bordello in the city. She even knew his favourite girl there. A blonde with massive tits that demanded when she was in the thick of it that he call her Jenna, though that wasn't her real name. The tidbit of information was gathered solely for the purpose of torturing herself—Juvia didn't need to know, or even really want to know—which girl Gray loved to pay to fuck.

He edged into her and moved his hips slowly while he massaged her at the same time; Juvia's thoughts cleared. Gray liked to get into it right away but he would never leave her wanting. He knew how she liked it and did it flawlessly, too. Juvia bowed into him, holding in breaths and sighs as only his fingers increased speed, aware that it wasn't just them in the house. The bed creaked occasionally. Gray held the headboard in one hand, Juvia's hip in the other. She wrapped her legs around his back and met each of his thrusts, thinking that would keep things quiet. Not really. He never stopped, though he did slow sometimes, coming all the way out just so he could get her closer and closer to orgasm, smacking his cock on her sensitive body.

He was a patient lover, squeezing out every bit of enjoyment he could. When it was time, Juvia came biting her lip. Gray didn't last too much longer after that and collapsed on top of her while still inside. He kissed her and she thought she could cry. He was too sweet after lovemaking. Always. She kept expecting him to get up and retreat into himself but he took his time before rising, kissing her chin, her neck, her mouth. When he was finally ready, she felt his absence like a hole in her heart.

He came back out, of course, and turned down the covers. "Come under," he told her.

Juvia hesitated. "Don't you want me to go?"

"It's late," he replied and again urged her beneath the blankets. Juvia let her apprehension go and did what he asked. He slung his arm around her body and put his head into her shoulder and she thought she could know peace like this.

Gray ruined everything. He usually did. "I know a doctor at Shoals."

Shoals. A rehab center.

"If you get in there... Aria would like to have you around more."

_Tante_ Eileen would never allow for it. Juvia didn't tell him that. He'd get the hint when he woke in the morning and she was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

 

_**II: Natsu ** _

White powder was pushed to one side of the glass table using a fine, silver knife, a highball glass of bourbon was slid to the other. Natsu wasn't usually so compartmentalized but these last six months had taught him how to keep things very, very separate. For instance, when Zeref came in and saw the modest lines of coke Natsu had put together and had given him the concerned brother speech, Natsu took the red glass tube he had just for this purpose and snorted every last line without telling his brother how fucked that sentiment was, considering. He drank the bourbon next.

Zeref left with little more than a glower and Natsu let the drugs take over, slumping back in the plush black chair in the huge and elaborate sitting room. He didn't care about shit like this—things; it was Zeref that wanted the Versace vases and the hand-stitched carpets. Zeref had the Mercedes and the BMW's, the Porsches in the garage because _if you're going to play a part, Natsu, you need to act it_. He did. Mostly. Getting driven to events wearing suits they never used to be able to afford, in shoes pricey enough that when he stepped in a puddle of mud, Natsu cringed. He had men and women to clean that for him now, though. He was verily a prince in this criminal empire his brother had built.

On the days when he didn't need to be Zeref's brother, Natsu had a cherry red 1962 Chevelle SS. Three hundred and eighty horsepower, 6.7-litre engine with dual four-barrel carburetors. He drove it too fast to places like Somnium, where he didn't worry if he needed an Armani to get inside. That bordello was a dangerous place for him now, though, for more reasons than one. He couldn't be as open about his comings and goings as he had been in the past.

His burner phone in his pocket rang and chased away the quiet jitters that were slowly sneaking up. Natsu checked the room before he pulled it out. He was still alone. "Yeah."

"Tonight. Come."

Natsu hung up without answering either way then stared at the opposite wall for what felt like a long time, looking at the painting of a woman that Zeref loved but Natsu felt almost nothing for; he didn't remember his mother or his father; Zeref was the one that raised him, Zeref was the one that gave him everything. Zeref was the one that took it away, too.

Natsu stood abruptly and stalked to the door. He grabbed his jacket off the coat rack at the front and when he got outside, a chauffeur was waiting by a long black Mercedes. He was as large as Elfman had been and looked twice as mean. Zeref had a type. He opened the door for Natsu and came around the front of the car once Natsu was inside. When he was in the driver's seat and the car was rolling forward, he asked, "Where to, Mister Dragneel?"

"The asylum," Natsu replied and put his head against the cool window. The dichotomy between the hot air blasting from the vents and the brisk outside seemed right at home amidst his internal discord.

* * *

It always smelled the same, iron and food equivalent to a hospital's. Laughter ricocheted off concrete walls and tiled floor, high and lunatic. Natsu was led through the familiar place by one of the orderlies, another tall and muscled man the asylum used to keep the girls all in line, assuring that they didn't hurt each other. Natsu didn't like him; he smiled too wide, laughed too loud, hid wildness beneath his orderly cap, though honestly, could he judge a man for having parts shaved into his dyed hair? Not really. He could, however, eye his tattooed tongue when it slid between his lips as he laughed. More than once, Natsu thought he belonged in there as well. A check of his records revealed nothing, though, this orderly had no strikes against him, no complaints, and when he asked Lisanna about it on the days she was sober enough to answer, Lisanna's blues cut through him with brutal efficiency. She'd tell him the same thing, 'He's nice.' In the same way Kagura was nice? Natsu didn't know. It's not like he could be mad about it, either, not as a jealous lover might be, anyway. On the days when he was so guilty for visiting Lisanna here, he found someone else to take her place in the hopes that the hole she left behind would somehow be filled.

It never was, of course. He didn't love the other girls like he loved Lisanna.

The orderly stopped outside the iron bars around the common room and called, "Miss Strauss?"

Lisanna's platinum head of hair lifted from Kagura's; they were midday and midnight beside each other, conflicting and yet so perfectly matched. She saw Natsu and her smile went hundred-watt. It moved right through him and made him weak in the knees. Yes, he loved her. Absolutely. He wished he didn't.

Lisanna had to extract her hand from Kagura's shirt before she could come to the gate. The inmates weren't supposed to touch each other but Natsu paid a lot of money to ensure that Lisanna wasn't bothered and the staff did their job well. If no one was getting upset and no one was getting hurt, no one broke them up. As long as she was happy.

She wrapped her hands around the iron bars and leaned in. Her cheeks were the kind of pink Natsu recognized. They always went that shade when she was wet between her legs. The thought gave him an errant thrill that he squashed only because they were watched.

"It's Tuesday, Natsu, isn't it?" she said first in a voice that was light and clear. "You don't come on Tuesday's."

He shrugged. "Just wanted to see you, Lisanna." His words had a foreseen effect—she beamed. Like he wished he didn't love her, he wished she didn't love him quite so much, either. Everything was too easy and it shouldn't have been. She deserved someone that could take care of her, someone whose brother hadn't convinced her to confess to a murder she didn't commit. Life had always been short-changing her.

The orderly opened the gate and ushered Lisanna out. She all but floated over the ground even in her asylum-issued white runners. She'd always been graceful; now she was ghostly. Natsu offered his hand. Hers fit with his nicely. If only her skin was smooth and not scabbed. Sometimes, she couldn't help it, though, and had to hurt something.

Walking through the halls, Natsu couldn't help but think that coming the first day had been a mistake; he couldn't stop now. Nor did he want to, if he was honest with himself. Zeref didn't want him there and even if he didn't love her, that was enough reason to keep him coming back. "Come on." There was a private room just for them. Lisanna was easy, following his lead because, like him, she couldn't seem to stay away.

The room Natsu had reserved for them was small, adorned with a bed with sheets but no blanket. Floors were tiled and there was no dresser or anything to make it homey, really. This room was good for one thing and one thing only.

The door had no lock. That was fine; being that alone with Lisanna wasn't always a good idea. Sometimes, she had strange thoughts and the smallest things would set her off. Natsu hadn't had an issue of that kind while he was alone with her but he was always watching, sure to let her lead him to where she wanted to go. He'd watch her when they got there, too, just in case.

Lisanna took her hand away from his and drifted to the bed where she spun a small circle before falling down on the mattress. Natsu forgot about the dingy, almost military-style room; Lisanna took up all his attention and then some. He went to her and stood between her legs. From there, he could smooth her hair back from her face with practiced brushes of his fingers. She leaned into him and smiled.

"Have you killed anyone today?"

Questions like that used to throw him. No longer, Lisanna was Queen Macabre and, if he wasn't careful, some days he felt like Prince. He deflected; there was too much coke in his system to entertain such violent thoughts; it was best to just stay away. "You don't want to talk about that stuff, Lisanna, do you?"

She sobered. "What do you want to talk about, then?"

"How's Kagura?"

Her brow quirked. "You want to talk about Kagura?"

"If that's what you want. She's your friend, isn't she?"

Lisanna's fingers curled in the sheets and Natsu wondered if he'd said the wrong thing. "Yes."

"Good."

"She likes my colourings."

"Good."

She tilted her face up. "We talk about you, you know." Natsu snagged up just a little and searched her eyes. Lisanna gathered speed. "When we're together. She asks if you're jealous when she's with me. She asks if you'll kill her. She asks if you'll fuc—"

Natsu put his hand over her mouth; Lisanna abruptly cut off and blinked almost dolefully but didn't try to talk again. He let out a breath and peeled his fingers back one-by-one.

"Don't you like it?" Natsu didn't know what to say; Lisanna was a hound for lies and she'd sniff one out immediately. Her lips cracked into a smile. "I knew it. I told her you would." Lisanna, erratic and twisted Lisanna, undid the buttons on her shirt and Natsu did nothing to stop her. Beneath was a plain white bra, not padded, not frilled; there wasn't even an underwire in case she wanted to hurt herself or someone else. Her nipples could be seen through the thin material, spots of dark, hard and pushed against the fabric.

"I also told her that you were mine, though. Will you say it?"

He was hard despite himself. It was the quality of her voice. Or the insane ride she always dragged him on. "I don't love anyone better than you."

Lisanna's eyes fluttered as if in relief. "I really do tell her, you know, about your visits. She likes it."

Natsu kissed her and she shut up for good, more interested in pulling him down with force; her fingers were like vices on his arms, leaving behind bruises. He was gentle when she was rough and lived for the contradiction. He was supposed to be the violent one; she took it all away from him and left only sweetness behind. He kissed her mouth while she left scratches on his skin. He kissed his way to her breasts and used his tongue to draw circles. Lisanna's back bowed and she said his name like a sigh. Natsu closed his eyes and thought about the girl he loved; she was there beneath the crazy. She _was_.

The time had come; Lisanna grew tired of his thorough ministrations and pushed him back. She stood and still looked like a ghost, so pale, so fluid with her movements. There was one thing Lisanna wanted and that was to get Natsu's clothes off. He let them all fall to the floor and sat when she told him to, watching as Lisanna started to do away with her own. Somehow, she managed to make a game out of shucking off asylum-issued scrubs. They fell from her body and she was only in the white cotton underthings the asylum offered. She didn't need lingerie. She didn't need frills or lace to look like the best thing he'd ever seen.

Natsu leaned back so Lisanna could crawl on top of him. She settled and he put his hands on her leg. Unlike on her hands, the skin there was smooth save for the birthmark just where her underwear met her thigh. He liked to trace that with his tongue, too, but she didn't look interested in that today. Her hips rocked; her body slid over his and he touched her everywhere he was permitted. Her breasts were heavy and her behind giving, the skin at her hips generous enough to give him something solid to hold on to, making it easier to arch into her. If he had it his way, there would be no space between them ever.

The final straw came when Natsu traced his fingers up her spine. Lisanna's orgasm soaked her panties and made her muscles weak. Afterward, she was content to sit on top of him in bliss but Natsu wanted to see more of her. The clasps of her bra came unclipped and the material fumbled down her goose bumped skin. She always tasted sweet, even when she used economy soap. Natsu left open-mouthed kisses everywhere he could and well before he was through, Lisanna was pushing aside her underwear and taking him inside. She fit around him perfectly and always had, right from day one, sixteen and sneaking into the cabin on the Dragneel property, too nervous to get the condom package open properly and so excited that he filled the rubber tip without ever getting it in.

Things were different now. Harder. All hardships considered, he would give almost anything to go back in time to that day.

Being at the asylum, Lisanna wasn't supposed to have jewelry but Natsu had the staff make a concession for that, too. Every movement she made, the necklace around her throat glimmered in the hollow halogen light. Natsu pulled her in so she was all but lying down on his front, needing to feel her more than he needed to see her. Her heart pattered through her rib cage; the rhythmic _beat, beat, beat_ helped him forget. In his mind, her hands weren't over his head digging into each other, leaving behind blood on the sheets and she wasn't biting his neck hard enough to leave a bruise worse than he'd had before. She'd never been drugged and raped; she never watched her brother kill those men. She wasn't in an asylum for murder and Natsu wasn't planning Zeref's. Everything was perfect. She was perfect. He was perfect. He had an amazing capacity to bury the ugliness.

Lisanna released the death grip she had on his throat. He felt nothing but numbness for an instant then it panged badly enough he wondered if she'd broken the skin. Just like before, he met her violence with gentleness and kissed her. Lisanna pinched his hips between her thighs and sighed loudly. The sound stuck to him like sticky silk and had an unforeseen effect. He swelled and Lisanna's body likewise cinched. When she came, he came, too, holding her tight around her back. He kept her that way until both their breaths evened.

When she was able, Lisanna sat up and touched his face. If her hands weren't scabbed, they'd still be rough with callouses from drawing so much. She made ugly art for all the ugliness inside of her. Natsu kept taking the pictures she gave to him and put them in a lockup box beneath his mattress. He never looked at them, not even when he opened the box and added another, they all went in face-down. The most intimate he got with them was appreciating where the colours bled through the paper because she pressed the crayon too hard. The colours she used were always green and blue; Natsu only got her red once and took it away just as quickly after she had one of her episodes. Mira wouldn't talk to him for two weeks afterward and tried to ban him from visiting Lisanna, too. That was more difficult. She may have had Somnium standing behind her but it wasn't hers and though she was tossing _Tante_ Erza, she had no sway over _Tante_ Eileen, who for all intents and purposes still held Somnium's reins.

Natsu realized Lisanna was staring. "What is it?"

Lisanna said gently, "You don't smile anymore, Natsu."

He rolled with this off and blunt statement as well as he did the others. "I'm not a kid anymore."

She put a kiss on his cheekbone and on his lips. "Me, either. Do you think we're ugly?"

"And beautiful."

"You think I'm beautiful?"

"You know I do."

"I still like to hear you say it."

"Soon, you'll hear me say it every day."

"When I come home?"

It had probably been a mistake to promise her such a thing; Natsu couldn't help it. She needed hope and he did, too. "Yeah."

"When?"

"Soon," he promised.

She smiled.

He kissed her again. It helped him not think about the hard things to come.

* * *

One thirty found Natsu standing out front of Acnologia's pride and joy, _Prodigure_. There was a man waiting by the doors, heavily armed. He glanced at Natsu only briefly before waving him in. Natsu moved through the long-empty restaurant to the back room where every wall was a one-way window looking out into the streets. Cars zoomed by in the cold fall rain, rooster tails of water in their wake. He would have watched the nightlife, it was very different than the day, but Acnologia took all of his attention, sitting at his table with a massive smoking cigar in his hand and a tumbler of brandy in front of him.

" _Signore_ Dragneel."

He'd been 'Mister' in some fashion for a long time; it was still strange to hear it spoken, though, especially in Acnologia's deep timber. It was a formality granted to him not because Acnologia thought they were equals but because he wanted Natsu to _believe_ that they were. Wise to the game, Natsu let his mouth twitch into a smile. "Black Dragon."

Acnologia waved him down to sit and took a glass and a decanter off the table's centerpiece. He poured Natsu the stiff drink he very much needed and sat back, eyeing Natsu while he took the very first sip. It was strong and burned some, but the feeling went away almost immediately and flavour chased it. Vanilla, strawberry, and coffee.

Natsu finished the rest and Acnologia poured him another glass. "How are things?"

"Fine," Natsu lied.

"And Lisanna? How is she?"

"She wants to come home."

"Does that mean our deal still stands?"

"Yeah."

"Good. I'm honored you asked me for help."

"I think honour doesn't have much to do with it. Once this is through, you'll have an ally in Erza, my brother will be dead and everything the Dragneels own, you will, too." He wasn't very good at checking himself, even around old money like Black Dragon.

" _Tante_ ," Acnologia corrected him. Natsu repeated his words. Acnologia cared for nothing the way he cared for respect. "Good."

"I set up an appointment to go there tonight. It'll be my next stop after here."

"And she wasn't suspicious of you?"

Natsu said, "I told her I wanted her help taking care of a mutual problem."

"The game you play is an old one."

"It works, though."

"How do I know you won't betray me?"

"I want my brother to suffer," Natsu said coldly. "Aligning with you will ensure that."

"Petty, using our rivalry to hurt him."

"You call it petty, I call it comeuppance." It made Natsu sick but Zeref would suffer before he died.

* * *

Three thirty came and went before Natsu pulled into Somnium's parking lot in a car he'd purchased with interest money and left in a lot in the rural part of town. Zeref didn't know it existed and Natsu preferred it that way. Why ruin a good thing?

Like _Prodigure_ , Somnium had someone waiting out front. Angel stood still like a statue but Natsu knew she watched his every move. She came alive when he was at her side and stopped him with a hand against his chest. "Weapons."

"Come on, Angel."

"Now."

He grumbled and removed his favourite revolver from his shoulder holster. "I want it back."

"It's scratched and grubby. I don't want it."

"It's a classic. It's seen a lot of shit," he informed her as he dropped it into her outstretched hand.

Angel was all business. "And the other."

"Come on," he said again. "You know it's a battlefield in there. Let me protect myself."

"And _you_ know the rules."

He sighed and took the gun from his waistband. Angel still remained in front of him. "Arms." He lifted his arms up and let her do a search. She grabbed at his crotch when he thought she wouldn't. "What's this?"

"My dick?" he supplied sarcastically. "Sorry about that. Love getting searched. It's a kink."

She didn't believe him and rightly so. Her hands were down his pants in a second, rearranging everything mercilessly to get to the small pistol he kept. He yelped; her hands were cold. Angel pulled out the gun with a superior look on her face. "Nice try, asshole."

Natsu tried one of his winning grins; Zeref said it was full of boyish charm. "I was just trying to get you down there."

"Natsu, my man, unless you got something pretty and pink way down low, I'm not fucking interested."

"What if I got another lady, huh?"

Angel smirked. "Get inside."

"That's not a no."

She didn't respond. Natsu wondered if Lisanna would trade Kagura's raven's black for Angel's silver. Angel was less crazy, for sure and lately, it felt like Natsu was buying up all the sanity pills he could manage.

Inside, Juvia was up on stage in a dress like poured gold. She was in a lot of makeup to hide the sharpness of her cheekbones and the hollows below her eyes. Natsu could still see the way her hands cinched on the microphone. Last time he saw her, she'd put herself at his feet and had taken his belt in hand. There, she bartered for a hit of anything he could give her and he almost caved. The promise of _Tante_ Eileen's wrath saved him last-second. Juvia hadn't looked at him since he'd taken his belt out of her hand and did up his pants. Withdrawal had had her in its grip but she was ashamed; Natsu? He didn't have an excuse for his hesitation that day other than he was always running and gunning and he was his biggest target.

Somnium's innards were bare save for Erza, who lounged on the bar in front of Mira in something tiny and white, mouth open in anticipation. She got the olive she was waiting for and said without looking Natsu's way, "My mother is in her office."

"Thanks." Natsu knew his own way. Floorboards soaked in whisky croaked beneath his feet. _Tante_ Eileen's door was closed. Natsu knocked.

"Yes."

When Natsu entered, he was surprised to see _Tante_ Eileen wasn't alone, Jellal Fernandez and Laxus Dreyar sitting across the desk from her looking outnumbered and outgunned. Eileen had that effect, Natsu knew first-hand.

Eileen stood. "Good timing, Natsu."

"We aren't through," Laxus said.

"We are, Detective. I've told you everything I know."

Jellal spoke up before Laxus could argue. "If you suddenly think of anything, _Tante_ , you know how to contact me."

"Yes, Detective. You're the incessant burr in my daughter's bed, I know."

He smiled. On his way out, he said, "Mister Dragneel."

"Hi," Natsu said distractedly. The door closed behind them and _Tante_ Eileen let out her breath then dropped into her seat and folded her fingers over her desk.

"What was that about?" Natsu asked.

"Someone has killed two men," she said. "Our good detectives are working the case."

"I haven't heard anything."

"You will. The latest victim was some well-to-do—Simon Mikizuchi."

The brother of the girl Lisanna was so enamoured with. That spelled trouble. Hopefully, Lisanna didn't get tangled in Kagura's fallout. "So what brought the detectives here?"

"Mister Mikizuchi visited Somnium before he died," she said plainly.

"You've had a rough go of it lately, _Tante_."

"I've weathered more storms than a ship's captain, I'll be alright, I always am. Enough now. Did you see Black Dragon?"

"Yeah."

She leaned forward when he trailed off. "Natsu, does it look like I have time to waste with you gathering your thoughts?"

Natsu had seen his share of killers, heartless sociopaths, psychotics that haunted his dreams if he let them. Eileen Belserion was in a class of her own, though. Her stares could give a man chills; it was a trait she'd perfected and then passed to her daughter. Natsu didn't like tangling with either of them, really, and cut the bullshit pronto. "He trusts me to be an intermediary. If you set up a date, he'd sit at the table and smile and make business deals until he thought he was in a position to take everything you have."

Eileen preened. "Good. And your brother?"

"He doesn't suspect anything," Natsu said.

"Even when you disappear for hours at a time?"

"He knows I go see Lisanna."

Eileen tugged her fingers through her crimson hair; the ends glittered like a spider's web might in fall light. "I would be watching my daughter if I betrayed her the way Zeref betrayed you."

Natsu held in his ' _you have'_. He still had hopes that one day, Erza would act on Mira's behalf and slide a knife through her mother's ribs and he'd be damned if he was the one to make her wary. "Zeref and I have a complicated relationship."

"I suppose as long as it doesn't affect our arrangement."

"It won't."

"That's good because I'm putting a lot on the table here, Natsu, and I would hate if anything went awry."

The boyish grin was for girls like Angel; the devil-may-care one was for the Eileen's of the world. Men returned it, women tittered over it; Eileen wasn't in the business of tittering, he knew she liked it just a little, though. "Me, too. I guess we'll just have to trust each other."

"I suppose. In that case, there is a small business I own on Elmer Drive. That can be your first target. The club on Quinn Street afterward. That should be enough to catch Acnologia's interest."

Sure. Raze the buildings to the ground and let Acnologia think that Eileen was facing attacks by her rival. He was sure to seize the opportunity to begin talks of alliances against a greater evil. "Will there be resistance?"

"Of course there will be, Natsu, my people won't take a hit like that lying down."

Her nonchalance made him fully appreciate the dangerous situation he'd found himself in.

"Is that a problem?"

"No, _Tante_." Danger never scared him, not the way it should, not since Lisanna's accident.

"Good."

Natsu stood.

Eileen asked, "Would you like to visit upstairs while you're here?"

"You'd have me risk life and limb for you and line your pockets while I'm at it?"

"I'm a businesswoman."

And Lisanna was still fresh on his mind. In a few hours, he'd crash and wonder what he was doing, visiting her in a mental institution and blatantly taking advantage of the way she still loved him, but while he was still riding that blissful high?

"Preferences?" Eileen prodded.

Of course, he had a preference; he'd already tread down that platinum-paved road, though, and at its end was a parched throat and a whole lot of self-loathing. Mira wasn't perfect; she was a little insane, actually, though when compared to Lisanna she looked like she had her ducks in order. The delusion she could offer him was as tempting as it was toxic. He could almost make himself believe that things had turned out differently if he closed his eyes and she didn't pant too loudly.

Eileen made a career out of reading people. "I'll get you a room booked; discreetly, of course."

Natsu cleared his throat. "I can't. I never stay out seeing Lisanna this long. He'll wonder. Zeref." Thank God for realities.

Eileen's smile was as wide as it was cruel; she knew it tormented him and she liked it. "Next time then."

Natsu got out while the getting was good.

* * *

The house was dark when Natsu finally made it through the door. He removed his jacket and hung it back where it had come from. Halfway across the room, a light flicked on, forcing Natsu to squint to focus. Zeref had been sleeping on the armchair in the same clothes he'd been wearing earlier that day. The shirt and pants were wrinkled, making him look generally unkempt. "It's late."

"Yeah. Why aren't you in bed?"

"Waiting for my little brother to get home," Zeref said as he rose. The steps he used to take him across the room were uneven and when he took Natsu by the shoulders and searched his eyes, Natsu could smell the alcohol on his breath. Zeref rarely drank and when he did, it was to alleviate some great stress. "I worry about you."

"It's been a long time since you've had to do that."

Zeref ignored him. "There's been a murder."

Natsu knew what his brother was about to say but kept it to himself as to not arise suspicion. "Yeah?"

"Some nobody named Alzac Connel and that rich kid, Simon Mikizuchi."

"I didn't see anything in the papers."

Zeref squeezed Natsu's shoulders. "Ultear Milkovich told me."

Natsu wouldn't say she was in his back pocket, exactly, but Ultear appreciated the money the Dragneels sent her way and was generally forthcoming with the information she could bear to be.

"You need to be careful."

"I always am."

"You're not."

There was no sense arguing; they both knew Zeref was right. Zeref sighed and pulled him in for a hug that Natsu returned. He'd give almost anything to go back in time to appreciate this, too.


	3. Chapter 3

**_III: Erza_ **

Apple crumble was the scent attached to Mira's new favourite body lotion. It was all Erza could smell trapped between her legs. It was nice, adding a delicate dichotomy to the ambiance while In This Moment's _Roots_ shook the room. Mira loved the music; it made her feel powerful, which meant Erza felt powerful, too. Mira's hopefulness was uplifting, as her hopelessness was debilitating. Erza pushed aside any negative thoughts. _We can do this_. They could outsmart her mother, get Lisanna out of the Asylum, and eliminate anyone that posed a threat. They _could_ succeed.

Mira's thighs pressed into Erza's cheeks and her ankles crossed over her spine. Most telling, though, was when Mira's fingers cinched in her hair so hard, it hurt. Erza threw herself into her ministrations, flicking her tongue faster, flexing her fingers on her breasts, knowing she would come soon, and relishing every moment. Mira sobbed her name. _Tante_ was said sometimes. Sometimes, it was just Erza. Regardless, it reminded her that while she didn't want the title, she wanted the power it granted her. The ability to protect those closest to her.

Above, Mira pushed Erza's hands aside and gathered her breasts together. Her back arched. Erza closed her mouth around the bud between her legs and sucked, forcing her into orgasm the same time the John to her left did. Hot spray landed on Mira's belly. Erza backed up to avoid it. The man had paid well for this opportunity, though it wasn't monetary goods he threw around—the manager of the Fiore Bank's head branch dealt in information and what he had to say about Erza's enemies' finances was most interesting—but Erza had her dignity to uphold. Her underlings got come on their favourite underthings, she did not. Not typically, anyway, not here, not while she was being paid.

Mira took the slight like a professional and even managed to look like she enjoyed it. Seconds passed in which the only sound that filled the room was the beat of the music. Eventually, the man did up the button on his pants and handed her a napkin off the bedside table like he was doing her a favour. Mira took it but didn't do anything with it yet. She was an actress, letting come cool on her skin to keep up the facade.

"Thank you, Mister Porla, for your business," Erza said as she rose.

"Anytime. And remember, we never—"

"If anything, I think I have more on the line," Erza cut in. "You're the one that should be remembering to be quiet."

He bit off whatever he was about to say and inclined his head. "If you need me again, you know where to find me."

Erza smiled in what she hoped was a simpering and seductive way. Jose Porla pocketed the look and took it with him out the door. Mira rose with a heavy sigh and wandered to the washroom. Erza joined her, watching as she discarded the rest of her garments and turned on the tap and got beneath the hot spray.

"We should have charged him extra. We didn't talk about him jerking off and coming. He was only supposed to watch."

"You knew it was going to happen," Erza replied. She certainly did.

Mira tipped her head up and looked at the ceiling, exasperated. "I guess. I'm still mad. That was Laxus' favourite bra."

She very rarely talked about the twisted relationship she'd built with the man that arrested her sister and when she did, it was only briefly, to say they were going out or that he was coming by Somnium. Erza didn't pry because she knew that complicated was more than just a Facebook status. For instance, Jellal knew she still took the occasional customer. He never asked her why when she didn't have to and he never asked her to stop. Probably because he thought he'd be on the curb faster than he could blink if he did. He could have been right; Erza didn't really want to test the theory. Being with him was hard and it was as brutal as it was sweet and sometimes, he asked too much of her but she didn't want to stop.

"Let's hope the information was good."

Mira turned off the water and stepped out of the tub into the towel Erza grabbed for her. "I guess we'll see." She put a kiss on Erza's cheek. "I'm going to see Lisanna. Did you want to come?"

The asylum was A Lot. She didn't like going there with Mira for a lot of different reasons, the ones that stood out, though, centered around how upset Mira was when she left that place and how crazy it made Erza feel to sit there beneath the eye of the not-quite-sane. Sometimes, she'd catch Kagura looking at her and muttering and she'd wonder if given the chance, would Kagura really have killed for the Cardinal? Yes, intuition told her. Maybe not right away but in time.

"Erza?"

Erza envisioned physically stepping away from those memories. "I can't. I need to shower and then I'm going out."

"To see Jellal?"

"Yes." Erza didn't like admitting when she was going to see him but she liked hiding her location even less, just in case something was to happen. Men, even good men, had the potential to become monsters.

Mirajane smiled. "Give him a kiss for me."

* * *

Cars took Erza everywhere she wanted to go now. Mostly, they were filled with people like Gildarts or Angel, men and women with deadly accuracy and the ability to never hesitate. Erza had taken to carrying, as well, a small gun strapped to her thigh that she did almost everything in her power to conceal from her partner. Most days, she was fine. Other days were manic. The ones that weren't were depressive and Erza didn't know what Mira would do with a gun. Kill Erza's mother, _Tante_ Eileen? March into the Dragneel's manner again and this time, actually shoot Zeref, and maybe Natsu, too? Laxus and Jellal? Erza wasn't sure. When she'd told Mira to make nice with Laxus, she didn't expect Mira to take that to mean decorate his bed with her body but that's exactly what she did. She had him so wrapped up and so far gone that Erza couldn't tell if she was playing with him or not. She was unpredictable, which made her dangerous.

"Should I wait, _Tante_?"

Erza looked up and realized that Gildarts, her driver for the night, had pulled into Jellal's building's parking lot. She checked over her shoulder and saw Jellal's spot was empty of his midnight blue Charger; he wasn't back yet from work.

"It's fine, I'm staying." And she didn't need anyone to let her in. She had a key. A _key_. Another complication. What kind of person gave another a goddamn key? When Jellal first handed it over, he told her it was so he could ask her to let out Beau if he ever had to work a double and Wendy couldn't swing by. Days later, he asked her to come over. He was in the shower and she let herself in.

Standing in his hallway with her coat half-off her shoulders and the water hitting the tub a room and hallway away, Beau at her feet happy, Erza realized that it was much more than he'd said. That key, it meant something. And it scared her. She put the offending piece of metal beneath the fruit bowl in the kitchen and didn't think about it for the rest of the night. The next day when she got back to Somnium and was looking through her purse for her lipstick, she found it again, put into the inside pocket.

Jellal knew her too well. That scared her, too.

"Call me if you need anything," Gildarts said as Erza threw open the door and stepped into the wicked late fall wind.

"I will." She slammed the door and crossed the parking lot with her coat pushing around her knees. The heavy glass entrance door was almost torn from her hands when she got it open. Inside the lobby smelled like old lady, as usual. The scent permeated the elevator she used to take her up to the twenty-fourth floor to apartment three-oh-two. Beau had her number before Erza ever got her key out to open the door. The dog used to bark, now she yodeled for Erza the same way she did for Jellal, though it may have been a little more subdued.

"Shh," Erza whispered between the door. Jellal wasn't supposed to have a dog here, not really. The dog was quiet until Erza got the door open and then started yipping again, spinning circles and then falling to the ground to give her belly. Erza squeezed in through the door and dropped down obligingly. This was one of Beau's favourite parts of the day, she was sure, and who was she to deny her?

When Erza's legs were cramping from crouching so long, she stood and asked, "Do you have to go pee?"

Beau was up in a flash. Erza grabbed her leash and attached it to the pink and white collar Jellal said Wendy had gotten for her (Erza thought he lied. She saw the receipt in the pile he kept by the microwave), and took her back the way she'd come, down the elevator and out the front door.

Outside in the bitter cold once more, she pulled up her hood and made for the break in the fence across the parking lot. On the other side was a wide and sparsely treed park. Beau loved it; Erza was indifferent to the location. In the summer, there was a lot of mosquitos; more importantly, though, no matter the season, her heels got caught in the dirt. Some days, she wore flat soled boots but it felt like accommodating Jellal, somehow, and she wasn't very keen on that.

She scrolled through her phone as Beau did her thing. Mira had sent her a dick pic of one of the men she'd seen the other day but had forgotten about until she was on the train, travelling to the asylum. It was huge to the point of gross. A crying emoji followed shortly thereafter. Erza was appropriately sympathetic.

She hit Facebook next and scrolled through her feed. The first article of what she assumed was to be many came up on the Magnolia News page she followed. Simon's smiling face looked up at her. That wasn't how he looked when he'd been found not very far from Somnium's doors, shot to death the day before. She let herself touch her gun, feeling its cold metal beneath her hands, remembering the kickback. Using it to take back control of her life years before had been liberating. Addicting. Even the aftermath, wondering if Jellal's story to the law was going to fly, deciding if she cared.

Beau's low growl made an errant spike of fear slide through Erza's chest. She lifted her eyes from Simon's face and hunted the night. Light blind, she couldn't see a goddamn thing, but she heard what Beau did, footsteps brushing through the leaves to her left, toward the immobile train cars parked for aesthetics along the front of the park where no light shone. Erza always saw monsters in the dark without much effort. Her fight or flight response was well skewed toward violence—she'd never run again. There were brass knuckles twisted in her braid and a gun on her leg and she was ready for whatever came for her.

"I'm armed."

The steps abruptly stopped. Beau didn't, though, getting low and raising her hackles. Erza allowed herself to pull her gun and hunted the shadows. She could see nothing but she felt eyes upon her. She was at her most dangerous when she was afraid and didn't try to modify that; fear would keep her safe.

Steps sounded again, this time behind her. Beau's growl increased. Erza faced the same direction as the dog and dropped the leash to aim her gun, just as Jellal taught her. Free, the dog shot forward and a surprised, "Easy!" came out of the darkness. Beau's growls fell away just as Erza's eyes adjusted. She picked Jellal's tall and muscled frame out of the shadows and lowered the gun she had pointed but not cocked.

Beau slouched low, her ears pinned against her head submissively. She leaned against his knees in a way that could only be described as apologetic. Jellal bent and grabbed her leash. "Geez. What's going on?"

Erza took in an uneven breath and forced her clammy hands to obey. Only when her gun was back in its holster did she say, "You scared us."

"I see that. Is something wrong?" He checked the shadows, too, looking for anything out of place.

Erza sighed and encouraged some of the tension to leave her. "Nothing. I was just reading about that stupid Mikizuchi case and then Beau heard someone on the other side of the park and…"

Jellal's smile was this side of teasing. "You spooked yourselves?"

She didn't understand how he could be so calm when she'd just pulled a gun on him. "Let's just go inside."

He started to reach for her; Erza waited for him to take her hand so she could deny him. He stopped last minute and touched her back gently instead. She permitted it because he didn't linger there, hand dropping away at the fence line.

Erza let him open the door and operate the elevator so he couldn't see how badly her hands shook. "You're late."

"Chasing this Mikizuchi case," Jellal replied.

"Have any leads?"

He scrunched up his nose. "He didn't have a lot of friends, especially after Kagura partnered up with Tores, but so far, I can't see why someone would want him dead."

"And Mister Mikizuchi?" He was a customer for a long time. Erza missed their trips to the opera house but he hadn't called since the arrest. She would decline anyway. What would people say?

"He doesn't know anything. He says Simon was a good man." The way he spoke left nothing to the imagination—he loved the puzzles but hated this part of his job, dealing with distraught family members and loved ones. Erza let it drop.

Inside the apartment, she parted with her coat and hung it on the coat rack beneath Jellal's watchful eye. She'd worn the small red dress just for him and wasn't disappointed; she was all he saw. Her boots went next. Erza pulled up her black stockings, another of Jellal's favourites; she was glad she wore them tonight, thinking maybe they'd help chase the ghosts from his eyes.

He _did_ look at her longingly but for all that, Jellal was man of routine. And patience, letting Beau off her leash and going to the fridge. "Are you hungry?"

"I got a wrap on the way over." There were only two things she wanted now. Jellal read her like a book and tried again to bait her with food.

"It was only a wrap, Wendy dropped off another Shepherd's Pie, have some."

"Maybe after."

He pulled a bowl off the top shelf and grabbed a fork. Without heating it up, he leaned against the counter and ate it as it was with exuberant enjoyment as if that would make his offer tempting. Erza went through her coat pocket while she watched him. Jellal saw what she pulled out and let the act go. He said only, "Open the window this time."

That was as close as he'd come to ordering her around. Erza drifted away into the bedroom where she closed the door and sat on the bed. She made sure the offending drug was rolled tight, then she opened the window as requested and lit it. The first time she'd done this in his home was to see if he'd let her. He entered the room she'd hotboxed and didn't yell like she suspected he would. He came over calmly, opened the window and watched her finish the joint. It was dissatisfying, really, when she expected an explosion and he denied her.

He was easy-going and she was mean. Maybe she'd stop being that way.

Erza got on her knees and leaned her forearms against the windowsill and peered out at the parking lot below. It was gradually filling up as people returned home, though more than a few spaces were still empty.

A figure wearing a fur-lined hood moved through the headlights of a parking car. Erza couldn't say what it was about them that caught her attention and held it but she watched them sway toward Jellal's car. Fingers slid over the trunk and a pale face tipped up. _Looking at you._ She was sure. Erza squinted down the far distance, trying to determine if she was mistaken. It was too dark to tell and the person was already moving on.

The bedroom door opened and closed. Erza looked back over her shoulder and found Jellal in the haze. He'd showered and only bothered to put on a pair of boxer briefs. Typically, she didn't have time for men's underwear. It was boring and the stuff that wasn't was over the top, but she liked him like this. She could see everything and nothing.

He crossed to her and took the joint from her fingertips. There was a moment when Erza thought he'd partake but Jellal snuffed it out.

"I wasn't done."

"My mistake, _Tante_."

She was high enough that fighting seemed silly. Besides, his palms were sliding up her stockinged legs and it felt nice. Starting at her ankles, he came up her calves to the inside of her thighs where he brushed over her leg holster with barely any hesitation and then her sensitive parts and pushed her dress high.

"You know," Erza said when he started back down on the outside this time. "People can see up here from the parking lot."

"Didn't I tell you, the old woman in my building paid me for this?"

"The one with the perfume?"

"The one with the yappy dog that barks every time the headboard bangs." Jellal was excellent at delivering deadpan humor. Erza tried to match him.

"I think as _Tante_ I should be reaping a percentage of these profits."

"I thought this was how I was paying my dues." He kissed her spine above the swell of her behind and lower. Lower again. Teeth sunk in and Erza closed her eyes. Jellal did his best work with his mouth, who was she to deny him?

A hot tongue left a trail of wetness down the center of her thigh and back up again. He dipped in at the last moment and Erza arched for him, giving him better access. It felt nice but not perfect, not yet. Erza undid the buckle around her thigh and let her gun drop to the floor and Jellal adjusted for her, putting himself on his back. Freer now, she lowered her hips and rocked over his tongue while he grabbed at her everywhere he could manage. The only lover she had that was comparable was Mirajane but Mira couldn't do exactly what Jellal could. She couldn't hold her as tight, or tease for as long, she didn't have the patience. She couldn't scratch the insides of Erza's thighs with stubble, which was a strange thing to want, she supposed, but when Jellal shaved, she missed it. Mira couldn't force her to push her boundaries the way Jellal could. Kissing Mira was never like giving away a piece of herself. Jellal, though? His mouth always wanted too much and told her too much without saying a word.

Erza curved her back and reached behind herself to find Jellal straining against his briefs. She teased him before pulling him out, tracing the outline with nails short and painted scarlet. He moaned into her; she felt the hum all throughout her body. He made another, more choked sound when she grabbed him firmly. Leaning back and pressing her smile into his sensitive skin made his hips lift. Erza gave him what he wanted, though not at the pace he preferred, taking her time and enjoying every moment of it, getting as much from it, if not more than, Jellal. He held her hips tight and tried to tease her equally by slowing the strokes of his tongue. It wouldn't have mattered; it was the feeling of his hot breath breaking over the overly sensitive area that made Erza come. She grabbed his hair and held him close until the tremors stopped.

When he could, Jellal took in a breath deep enough to make his chest expand beneath her. Rough palms slid up Erza's thighs; kisses followed, soft ones delivered with lips and tongue. Erza absorbed his attention for a moment, doing nothing to reciprocate. Jellal eventually reached over his head for the bedside drawer. From its depths, he produced one of the many silver condom packages he had for days like today. Erza took it from him and after adjusting herself so she was no longer on his chest but at his side, she put it on for him, too. It was too smooth, tasted too much like plastic, but Erza kissed him anyway and watched his eyes droop closed. Predictably, he went for her hair. Kissing her; filling his hands with scarlet—two of his favourite things.

Always in the business of denying him, she sat up and gently took her hair from his hands, putting it back over her shoulder. Jellal's eyes came open and the look on his face was disappointed.

"Sit up," Erza commanded.

Pliable Jellal did what she asked with very little hesitation. She pulled him to the edge of the bed so his feet were on the floor, and then lowered herself onto his cock with her back to his chest. His hands wrapped around her front and gripped her at first through her dress. It didn't take him long to pull at its hem. It came down over the strapless red bra she was almost too big for and sat at her ribs. Jellal gave her bra the same treatment, forcing it beneath her breasts. It strained to hold her up; he helped, filling his hands completely while Erza spread her legs, grabbed him by the thighs, and started to rock.

There were benefits to doing it this way. She didn't have to see the peaceful and adoring look on his face that she knew for certain that he'd caught her returning more than once, she didn't have to stare at him, counting the ways she loved his face. She didn't search for the green in his hazel eyes.

Jellal's mouth pressed into her spine; his hands held her back against his chest. It wasn't enough for him; it never was. His fingers were in her hair again, turning her around and leaning her back. He tasted a little bit like sweetness; he'd drunk a coke before coming to her.

Erza let herself get swept away, though honestly, she didn't know if it was much of a choice. One moment, she was leaning back and kissing him, the next, she was grabbing his hair and lying on his chest on the bed. He'd taken her by the thighs and put his feet back on the mattress. Erza stretched out for him and met his thrusts with short pants that betrayed her enjoyment. He kissed her neck through her hair and muttered nonsense in her ear, things she'd heard before from other men, things she knew to be true but had lost meaning somewhere along the way. Not tonight. When Jellal told her that she was beautiful, she felt it in every cell. He named off all the parts of her he loved, she knew he didn't mean it facetiously. Jellal thought about everything he said and did and it was obvious to Erza that he thought about this quite a lot.

She waited for him to say the most affronting thing, the one that would ruin everything and send her on her way. Jellal wasn't stupid by any means and kept Love to things she could understand, parts of her that others had worshipped, too.

His arm encircled her chest and he palmed her breast while his other hand moved between her legs. Erza sighed with his touch and felt another orgasm creeping forward. Jellal's kiss moved to her shoulder and his speed increased. Erza traded gripping his hair for the sheets and lifted herself up just that little bit, giving him more room to work. His muscles bunching beneath her, the grip he had on her hips, and the slap of flesh against flesh all melded together. Erza tipped her head back to orgasm. Jellal followed seconds later, filling the condom.

Erza remained where she was until every last tremor left her body; it wasn't to go very far, slide off his chest and lie down next to him. Cold wind hit her exposed breasts, reminding her that the window was still open. The room was no longer smoky.

Jellal lifted up and tugged the window down, then took care of the condom, condemning it to the garbage. When he laid back down, Erza deigned to rest her head on his bicep. She even allowed herself to draw designs over the hard muscle that she knew he spent a lot of time sculpting. Her mind wandered and as usual, it wandered to business. Particularly, her mother's business.

When she asked why Natsu was sneaking in after hours for a visit, Eileen had been vague. For all of her talk of letting Erza take over, she was a control monger and had always been that way. When Kyouka was Eileen Belserion's front for Somnium and Eileen had been operating in the shadows, Kyouka had let her delegate almost everything. Erza didn't want that. If she was to be given control, she wanted all of it.

Jellal pinched a piece of Erza's hair between his thumb and forefinger and played with it. Into her ear, he whispered, "Have lots on your mind?"

"My mother didn't give you a very hard time yesterday, did she?"

One of Jellal's hazel eyes came open. "You're giving me a complex, _Tante_."

"Why?"

"Because I'm exhausted and satisfied and happy and you want to talk about the Spider."

Erza curled her nose up at the nickname, wondering what _her_ name would be one day. Surely, there was something for her out there other than ' _the Spider's daughter_.'

"Your mother wasn't helpful," he said. "She never is, though."

"I'm not sure she knows anything about the Mikizuchi murder," Erza said to the ceiling.

"Your mother knows everything that happens in this city."

"I think she's preoccupied."

"With?"

"With whatever she's scheming with Natsu Dragneel. That's twice he's been by Somnium in the last week."

"That's unusual. I heard that they weren't seeing eye-to-eye these days."

Erza took her eyes from the ceiling and looked into Jellal's. "They've almost never been anything other than cordial," she said, baiting him into telling her that he knew about Lisanna's framing, that Mira was the murderer that killed Superintendent Tores in his hospital bed before he could stand trial for all the lives he'd ruined before taking, the girls he'd raped and then brutalized before stripping them bare, shoving wires through their skin to articulate them, and donning them with a crown of sharp thorns.

If Jellal was aware of the truth, he didn't confide in Erza, saying only, "They've been competitors for a long time, on and off the books." Dragneel's Fairy Tail versus the Belserion Somnium, and all of the drug trade that happened behind closed doors. "I'm surprised they've lasted this long."

Now he was the one baiting. Erza smiled at the strange relationship she'd built. Could the upcoming queen of a rotten empire keep one of Magnolia's finest detectives as a consort? Some days, it felt impossible. There were a lot of secrets and even some lies between them. The days she could tell the truth she appreciated above all others.

"Will you come back to Somnium for more questions?"

"I need to talk to Mirajane. And Gildarts, I guess," Jellal said. "He was standing guard in the room that night, wasn't he?"

"I didn't want Mira seeing Simon by herself after Kagura."

"You could have told him no altogether," Jellal suggested.

Erza said, "Somnium is a bordello with a lot of competitors. If one of the richest men in town wants to come through her doors, I won't turn him away."

"Even if he's a disgraced rich man?"

"Especially. Somnium takes the highroad. Kagura's sins weren't Simon's," she retorted. "We showed forgiveness."

"You took a business gamble. You could have lost customers if they found out he was hanging around."

"Could have?" Erza said with a raise of her brow. "A man was shot after walking only a block from my doors. I've already lost business."

Jellal sighed. "Will it be alright?"

"Somnium? I imagine," Erza said. "With my mother running secret business deals with Magnolia's favourite brooding prince."

Jellal grinned. "I think you mean king. Zeref is the brooder."

She didn't. Behind closed doors, Natsu was as furious as she'd ever seen him and she watched him obsessively. A man furious was a man dangerous and she wouldn't be caught off guard. "My mother will keep us safe."

Erza sat up; Jellal took her wrist. "Are you going to come back?"

She may have said no if she didn't make the mistake of looking at him. She liked him sprawled on the bed for her too much.

* * *

Buzzing drew Erza from a place comfortable, squished between warm skin and warmer fur. She opened her eyes and saw fuzzy ears poked up, though Beau's head was still on her bicep. She weaved her fingers through thick fur and listened to the buzzing continue. Behind her, Jellal muttered. The mutter turned into a sharp intake of breath and then he moved. The phone was dropped on Erza's side first before he could get it answered. He picked it up and tried again.

"Yeah?'

Erza listened to the high voice on the other end of the line, though she couldn't hear exactly what was said.

"Shit. Yeah. I'll be there soon." Something else was said. "I'll stop and get him. Yeah. Bye." He hung up and then just lay there for a moment. Erza didn't know if he was looking at her or Beau or nothing. "Are you awake?"

Her, then. "Mmhm."

"I gotta go."

Erza turned over as much as she could. Jellal looked too worried for first thing in the morning. "What's wrong?"

"Another body was found near Somnium."

Erza came more awake. "What?"

"Another man, shot the same way."

"Who?" she asked.

"I'll tell you what I can when I can," Jellal said as he got up.

Erza sighed and flopped over, watching him dress. He worked quickly, finding a pair of black slacks, a white collared shirt, a black tie and a matching jacket. He tripped into a pair of dark purple socks and jammed the hat he kept on his dresser's mirror over his messy hair.

Before leaving, Jellal caught and held her eye. Erza knew what he was thinking; she gave him no inclination either way, letting him decide how to proceed, though admittedly, she was relieved when he didn't try to do the couple thing and kiss her goodbye. She did tell him, "Be careful," and he responded likewise. When the outer door slammed, Erza rose and started to take care of Beau.


	4. Chapter 4

**_ IV: Laxus _ **

Usually, Led Zeppelin blaring out of his alarm clock was the best thing to wake up to. Not this morning. Sweet breath by his ear and a warm body sliding beneath the sheets and pressing into his was an improvement no matter which way you cut it. Fingernails raked into his hair and pulled just lightly enough. It was a precursor for what was to come. Legs spread wide to rest on either side of his hips and she lifted one of his hands to put his fingers in her mouth. Laxus wrapped his arm around her naked hips before opening his eyes and arching into her behind. Mira preened around his fingers, a sound that moved straight through him and made him impossibly hard.

Laxus peeked at her through his lashes and almost stopped. She'd put his tie on again, it was wrapped around her throat and hanging between her breasts. Her eyes were bright but he couldn't tell if she'd been crying like the last time he'd caught her standing in front of his body-length mirror, his white dress shirt hanging off her otherwise naked body and his tie draped around her neck. He'd spied on her for too long then from the mattress, as she took off the shirt and let it drop around her feet and remained in his tie, smoothing it down her middle. He'd wanted to ask her what that meant but didn't have the courage. She'd returned, given him the same treatment she was now, and he'd fucked her until they both buried the memory. How long would that work for? Not long enough.

Mira released his fingers and Laxus filled his hands with her breasts. She sighed and leaned forward when he asked. Her kiss wasn't wet with tears and her breathing was clear. He felt less guilty for it. "I don't remember falling asleep with you here," he said around her kiss.

"Surprise. I found your key under the welcome mat and I let myself in. I hope you don't mind."

"Not in the slightest." His hiding spots had to be simple for Gramps; Mira had helped him create a list of potential spots and though he hadn't told her exactly which he'd chosen, he was glad she'd decided to look on her own.

"And this?" She reached behind herself and pulled out her cell phone.

"Again?" Laxus asked.

"Don't you have fun?"

He sighed deeply enough that she shifted on top of him. "I don't know if I have time this morning." A glance at his clock was telling enough, it was seven thirty, he was supposed to be at the station in an hour.

"I guess you better be quick."

"What if someone I know sees it?" What if someone at work saw it, was his biggest concern. What the hell would Ultear do to him if she knew there werethese kinds of videos of him floating around the web? Skin him. She would just skin him. Splay him out on the station steps for everyone to see, a warning to all men led astray by majestic pussy. He opened his mouth to call it quits.

"You want to know what I'd do if I stumbled across it?" Mira asked in the sultriest voice imaginable.

Laxus couldn't help but tighten his hold on her hips. "What?"

"I'd think, he's pretty, and then I'd watch it all the way to the end, squeezing every lick of enjoyment out of it I could." She wriggled up and set her phone against the headboard, the recording screen up and facing her so Mira could see exactly how much and how little was shown. Laxus glanced back but didn't have a great view.

"It's just the side of your face," she assured him.

"The side with the recognizable scar," he muttered.

Mira stopped teasing. "Do you really not want to?"

His want to make her moan was stronger than his immediate fear of losing his job. He'd screen the video. "Hit record."

Mira's smile grew slowly. She pressed the screen and climbed all the way up Laxus' body. This was different. Last time, she wanted to do the servicing. Laxus didn't know if that turned him on more or just made him nervous. It was a lot of pressure, performing. Her thighs rested against either of his cheeks and she tilted her hips. She tasted a little bitter but her sigh was all sweet. She was always more receptive to his ministrations when she thought there was a chance of getting caught or, more recently, the camera was rolling. She sometimes texted the videos to him in the middle of the night along with other compromising photos that kept him up past the time he should be. Jellal was pissed at first when Laxus told him to drive a few days in a row so he could catch some extra sleep, leaning against the window but once Jellal got the whole story, or at least the part of the story that _mattered_ , he was a little more accommodating. He was a good partner, taking pity on Laxus for his complete inability to text Mira 'I'm sleeping.'

When Mira wasn't texting him photos or videos, she was leaning over his shoulder while he navigated his laptop, going to the free amateur porn site she favourited and uploading the videos that Laxus decided showed nothing identifiable. Any of the other's got deleted.

Then they'd sit back and wait. The site gave a read out of when the video was clicked on and how long it was watched for. Who would have thought statistics could ever be sexy? Laxus, when Mira would get in front of him, remove her clothing, and make him have her there on the desk. Her adoration was a catching thing. Sometimes, he'd fuck her so hard that anything on the desk ended up on the floor. The only thing breakable was the desk itself, it's leg suffering for his pleasure, and the laptop, that met with the floor more than once. It was a field laptop, though, and hardy. The desk had been fixed but not before the old man got back from his doctor's appointment Porlyusica had taken him to and seen the mess of tools Laxus had splayed out. Makarov's smile was knowing, though he'd chosen to take the smug highroad. That road was a dangerous one, as far as Laxus was concerned, it was riddled with potholes filled with things like grandkids and marriage and love. He didn't know what he and Mira had but he wasn't sure that was it. The topic had yet to be broached, and that was just fine by Laxus. Gramps didn't even know what Mira did for a living and he wasn't sure he'd approve. Hell. Laxus wasn't sure he approved himself. He couldn't stop, though.

Mira always trembled when she was close. She started to now, thighs squeezing in on him, her breaths coming up so, so short. Her fingers were in his hair again. When Laxus realized they blocked the view of the camera, he took her wrists and pinned her hands behind her back. Her breath hiccoughed and her hands flexed in his. Laxus held her tightly, making sure she couldn't move an inch, and moved his tongue in a way he knew she liked quite a lot. She bent like a bow, head tilting back, and orgasmed, body pressing into his tongue hard. Laxus slowed, then stopped, then released her. It took Mira some time to turn off the recording. When she was ready, though, she turned the phone up to the ceiling and shimmied down Laxus' chest. Her mouth was as hot as cinders kissing him. She was thorough and careful. Laxus was so occupied with her mouth, he didn't feel her slide down on top of him until she was teasing him at her entrance and Laxus took it that step further, pushing inside of her. She gasped and her eyes drooped and she looked at him in a way he wanted to memorize. Mira was something else, a complex package topped with a whole lot of crazy he couldn't get away from no matter how strange it became, no matter what she needed from him. He'd give it, give and give, until she didn't ask for anything more.

Mira lifted herself up and back down again, seemingly decided that she, too, didn't care much about breaking the rules. No intercourse without protection. She was on birth control, and he was clean. And uninterested in stopping.

Laxus propped himself up and bridged his hips, giving Mira more to work with. She brought her knees up, planted her hands on Laxus' thighs, and fucked him hard enough that he was worried about his grandfather hearing in the room down the hall. He would have gotten her to slow down but her neck was starting to go red and she was shaking again, edging into another orgasm. He would never deny her.

When she came, she left crescent moons in his thighs and praises in his ears, though he hadn't done much just yet. Laxus pushed her to her back and got on his knees. Mira's smile grew again as she intuited what he wanted. Her legs came together; Laxus held them up with one hand, clamped his hand on her thigh with the other, and started over again. Like before, she was too loud, her voice and Jim Morrison's singing _Love her Madly_ , competing.

Her face turned into the bedsheets and she gripped his wrist hard enough to hurt. Unlike her, Laxus kept his eyes open when he came, pushing into her deep. Mira didn't scold him for it, she only panted and pushed her hair back from her forehead. Laxus hugged her legs until he caught his breath, then he put a kiss on her ankle and got up. Once his alarm was shut off, the house was eerily quiet. Laxus tiptoed.

There was no en-suit bathroom for his room, that was the master and Gramps had that. Laxus found a pair of discarded classic Avengers boxers and tripped into them. He was cautious opening the door and peeking out into the hallway. It seemed the old man was still asleep. Laxus took the hallway on the balls of his feet and closed the bathroom door quietly. After that, though, he hurried. It was eight already. There was no time for a shower; he wetted his hair and put on deodorant and by the time that was done, he had twenty-three minutes to wake Gramps, feed him his heart medication, and get to the station, a fifteen-minute drive. Maybe he could duck in through the morgue doors, that way, Ultear nor Jellal would catch him skulking through the front.

Laxus opened the door and almost crushed a tiny, crooked and surly man. At first, Laxus didn't recognize his grandfather. Makarov was so gaunt these days, all of the bones in his face could be seen. Then, slowly, his brain engaged and he accepted that this skeleton of a man was the same one that raised him. Laxus breathed out. "Don't _do_ that."

"Wait for the bathroom in my own house?"

"Sneak up on me in _our_ house," Laxus corrected. "And you have a bathroom in _your own room_."

"Yes, but my bathroom doesn't have a guilty grandson to harass."

"What is it? I'm running late," he tagged on the last in hopes of softening his words. Since Ivan assisted the Cardinal in his killings and Laxus had shot him to death, he'd been trying to be nicer to his grandfather. Some days, Makarov handled the news well. Others, Laxus caught the old man staring listlessly at a cereal box decorated with a man that looked superficially like Ivan, in that he, too, had a beard and steely eyes.

"Was that Mirajane I heard come in?" Makarov had a gleam in his eye Laxus didn't much like, it was something much more dangerous than sadness.

"Mind your own business, old man."

"It is my business. Why don't you invite her to dinner tonight? Porlyusica is cooking."

"Yeah? Does she know that?"

"She cooks every day," Makarov muttered.

"I know. You complain about it. Every. Day."

"A man needs variety. An old man," Makarov corrected. "Not you young ones. You get too much already. The buffet wasn't like it is today when I was your age."

"We're not having this conversation." This poorly veiled, gross food analogy conversation.

"Take pity on an old man. Ask her by tonight."

" _No_ ," Laxus hissed.

"Why not? You can't just sneak her into your bedroom in the mornings and late at night, Laxus. She's going to think you're only in it for," he dropped his voice and looked around conspiratorially. "The sex."

"God." Laxus didn't know whether to laugh or not.

Makarov's cheeks were rosy with delight. "Unless you are, are you? Are there others? Share with your poor old grandfather."

"Annnd that's enough." Laxus inched out of the bathroom. Makarov wouldn't let him get far.

"Don't be embarrassed. I was young once. How do you keep them from finding out about each other? I tried once. One girl gave me this," he tapped the corner of his eye where a long scar lived, "And the other took up on the wrong side of the law just to spite me."

Laxus knew a little about girls on the wrong side of the law. "I'm sure that's why."

"What's the other one's name? Is she beautiful like Mirajane? She is, isn't she? Dreyar men are lucky. Sometimes, we can be led astray by a pretty face but what we lack in cynicism we make up for in other ways. I remember changing you, Laxus, your peeper—"

"Have you taken your heart medication?" Laxus asked loudly in hopes of stopping this in its tracks.

Makarov clammed up. Thank fuck. He'd taken to rambling in the recent months and none of what he said ever had a goddamn filter. Last week, they were in the drug store looking at laxatives for him and Makarov made sure to voice his displeasure for the recent edition to his pharmacy bill and recount his most recent movement in detail. On top of his Alzheimer's, it was A Lot.

"You haven't, have you?"

When Makarov was about to lie, he always popped out his bottom lip. "Yes, actually, I did."

"You're a little liar."

"I am not. I took it."

"Then you'll take it again," Laxus said.

"The doctor said it was dangerous to have it more than once a day!"

"So's not taking it at all," Laxus returned.

Makarov grumbled something surely mean, that, too, had been getting worse and stomped off to his bedroom. Laxus entered his room just as the other door slammed. Mira was on the bed still, propped up on her knees. She'd put his shirt on over her shoulders but hadn't buttoned it up. Laxus shamelessly used her to push aside his increasing stress, as best he could, anyway. Just as long as he didn't think about what she was thinking about when she put on his clothes, he was golden.

"Was that your grandfather?"

"Yeah."

"I guess that means we should be quieter next time." She didn't look at all embarrassed, not Mira, who'd spent a good many years making all of her coins off pleasure.

"Then he wouldn't have anything to gossip about."

A brow rose. "Does he often gossip?"

"When he thinks there's something to gossip about."

"Me? I've been coming here for months."

"Not you exactly. He thinks because you haven't stayed for dinner that means I have an armada of women as beautiful as you waiting for a piece." Laxus found his pants and pulled them on. They were a little wrinkled. And was that a coffee stain just above his knee? That was interesting because Jellal was the only one drinking coffee yesterday. Makarov had been told by the doctor to cut out caffeine and had taken the news badly. Laxus volunteered to make the change as well so he didn't have to do it alone. The first day was rough. The second worse. After a week, he was a little more alert in the mornings but he still hankered for coffee, especially when he smelled it. Which was always, it seemed, because Jellal was a fiend.

"That's an interesting leap."

"He's not working with all his cogs. Not after last spring." He glazed over that. Mira was quiet, waiting for him to continue, likely. She never pushed him to talk but she did seem to have this gentle, nudging way of getting him to think about divulging. Feelings. He burned those as best he could.

When Mira realized that he wasn't going to say anything else, she plucked herself up from the bed and came to him, putting herself between him and his dresser, her arms around his neck. She pulled him in and it was exactly what he needed to not think about anything.

"Do you want an armada of women?" Mira asked between their mouths.

"Too much effort, sneaking around."

"Who said anything about sneaking?"

He wasn't sure what she meant. What were the boundaries of their relationship? Did they have a relationship? Was he expected to see other people? He knew she did for work and sometimes for pleasure. Not that he spent much time dwelling. His head went weird places when he thought about Mira's favourite girl. _That_ was something him and Jellal just didn't fucking talk about. Ever. "Um..."

"She'd be my pick, of course," Mira continued. "I'd want someone I'd get along with, though of course, you would have a vote, too. She'd be someone we both found attractive." He realized what she was saying and felt himself get hard again. Mira knew, too, and grabbed a handful. "Does that sound nice?"

"Not Erza."

"No. I wouldn't and neither would she. But someone else?"

Laxus kissed her by way of answer. Mira put her butt up on the dresser and spread her legs. Laxus was just unzipping his pants when he heard tires crunching over the driveway. He closed his eyes and put his head on Mira's shoulder, hoping that wasn't his partner.

Mira ruined it for him. "Jellal's here."

And getting out of his car. Laxus fixed his zipper and stripped Mira of his shirt. She batted his hands away and did up the buttons for him and Laxus let her despite the fact that Jellal was knocking on the door. She put his tie around his throat, too, working slowly and methodically, and looked sad to be separate from it.

"Thanks." Laxus stuffed his shirt into his pants and Mira fixed his hair for him, fingers making short work of his messy locks. When she was done, she pulled him in by the tie for another kiss that Laxus felt all the way in his bones.

The front door opened. "Did I give him a key?" Laxus questioned.

"A few months ago," Mira reminded him. "After your grandfather had that fall when you were in training."

Right. The Harassment in the Workplace training that seemed to be rather useless but a hot topic on all the bureaucrat's desks lately.

Laxus grabbed his badge and his wallet and put them in his pocket. He added his keys next and thought he was ready to meet Jellal. Something made him hesitate. He was supposed to do something. He went through his morning checklist in his mind. Workout. That was a scrap. Same with shower. Eat. That'd be done along the way now. "I was supposed to give Gramps his medication. Fuck."

"I can do it," Mira offered, "If you're running out of time."

"Yeah?"

"Sure."

"He can be surly."

"I got it."

Jellal's footsteps were in the hallway. "I gotta go." Laxus picked up a Taproot T-shirt and gave it to Mira. She pulled it over her head and around her hips and Laxus opened the door. Jellal was on the other side, lifting his hand to knock.

"Morning," Mira sang and hopped off the dresser.

"Morning, Mira." Jellal was good about not staring, though Laxus supposed after his stint working and living at the Prayer, a once infamous bordello run by a woman Jellal never called mother but certainly thought of in such capacity, given that she raised him and paid his way through police foundations, seeing girls like Mira, dressed so scantily was common place. What would that be like? His partner never talked about it, like Laxus never talked about his father. Some wounds were better left badly healed.

"Why are you here? I still got some time."

"Captain said she called you and you weren't picking up," Jellal said. "We got a case out by Somnium."

"Another?" Laxus turned to look for his jacket, Mira had it for him already. He took it from her and shrugged it on.

"I'll fill you in on the way," Jellal said.

"Alright." Laxus caught himself by the door and looked back at Mira. "You sure you're good giving Gramps his medication? He can be sort of wily. Like, watch soft core to make you uncomfortable kind of wily."

"Well," Mira picked up her phone off the bed and wiggled it between her fingers. "In that case, have I got something for him."

Laxus was pretty sure she was kidding. "Don't encourage him."

Mira smiled. "I'll see you later."

Laxus opened his mouth to ask her to come for dinner, thinking of his grandfather, but closed it again, afraid of what Mira would say and what that might mean. He said instead, "Don't take any of Gramps' shit."

" _Really._ I can handle him. Leave."

She'd dealt with worse, Laxus was sure. Sometimes, Makarov could be inappropriate but he wasn't a predator and Mira wasn't exactly a damsel. "Call me if he's acting up." Just in case.

"I will." She crossed the room and pushed him out.

Laxus double backed around her for his phone. He found it beneath his pillow. The face lit up when he grabbed it and he saw that he had five missed calls from the office and four from Jellal. It seemed par for the course lately. Usually, though, it was Jellal's calls he was missing and not Ultear's.

"She sounded mad," Jellal said unhelpfully.

"Great." Really, this was Ultear's own fault. "She _never_ calls me first."

"Well, things change."

"Never for the better."

"Welcome to the Adult club. Bye, Mira." Jellal was already half-way down the hall.

"Be safe, boys." She had a wink for Laxus. He lent her a half-smile and rushed to catch up, dumping his phone in his pocket along the way. A pair of oxfords waited for him by the door. There was dirt smeared on the tips of the toes and they were half-on and half-off the boot mat. He didn't keep his shoes as nicely as Jellal did. He didn't have _time_ for that shit. He showed up, busted the bad guys, the cycle repeated for the entirety of his day. There wasn't an hour to set aside for leather maintenance and that was just fine by him. If he wanted to do the bureaucratic crap, dress nice, talk nice, play nice, he would have opted for an office job, not trudging through forgotten and filthy alleys looking for killers.

Laxus donned his beige trench coat and grabbed his bowler off the hook by the garage door. "You driving?"

"I could."

"I'll get the coffees," Laxus said, then corrected himself. "I'll get the _coffee_ and water." No caffeine fucking sucked.

Jellal put on his shiny leather shoes and pulled open the front door. Cold, cold air dotted with the odd snowflake rushed inside the house. Laxus grumbled and cinched his jacket tighter, thinking about the lined trench coat he had stuffed away in the closet with all of his other winter gear. Buried. He was holding on to the shoulder season for as long as he could. Another source of contention in his household. He'd dressed his grandfather in everything from a down-filled coat to a toque since the beginning of October and Makarov had complained every single time, spouting things like, ' _You don't have to wear it, why should I?_ ' Laxus was running out of energy for the arguments.

The Charger was warm, at least. Laxus turned on his heated seat. Honestly, it was the only improvement in modern cars, as far as he was concerned. Everything else was worse. The motors, the designs, though the Charger wasn't _too_ bad, the quality. Jellal had already redone his exhaust while Laxus' Plymouth's was the original.

"So?" Laxus jammed his seatbelt into the coupler and put his hands in front of the air vent. "What's happening?"

"We have another body by Somnium," Jellal announced.

Laxus sighed. "I ever tell you I'm fucking _sick_ of visiting Somnium?" All of the women that ran it were mean in some capacity. _Tante_ Eileen would drag them out behind the building and have them shot if Erza would allow for it, Laxus was sure, and _Erza_ was a blade all in her own right. Then there was Angel, who looked for any excuse possible to inflict some pain upon him, and Mira… Sometimes, he thought she hated him. Others…

"We're all sick of us visiting Somnium," Jellal agreed. "I'm sure _Tante_ Eileen is going to be _thrilled_ having us knock on her door again at…" He checked the radio time. "Eight-thirty."

"You think we're going to have to talk to her?"

"I'd bet money on it," Jellal muttered.

"You got information I'm not privy to?" What kinds of things was Erza whispering in his ear? He was sure it wasn't sweet talk.

"I'm just being logical," Jellal said. "The last two led back to her doors, why wouldn't this one?"

"You think she's having them done in?" That was sloppy for someone like _Tante_ Eileen who could afford to dispose of bodies in such a way that they were _never_ found.

Jellal mimicked his thoughts. "No, but I think that Somnium is the ground that pulls them all together. Someone's targeting the men going into her establishment and I want to know why."

"Vendettas," Laxus prosed. "Pissed off wife?"

"Did you read that file Levy sent us?"

"Why would I read it when I got you?"

Jellal rolled his eyes. "I guess at least you're pretty? First two victims weren't married."

"Maybe this third one is, though, and his wife was a heinous, jealous bitch and a man hater and this can all be tied up in a neat bow before lunchtime today." _No more serial killers_. He didn't have to say it aloud for Jellal to know exactly what he was hoping for. Jellal was more clinical, needing evidence before jumping to conclusions or musing. He put his foot down and his car accelerated through an orange stoplight.

* * *

Blood was in the air. Laxus breathed shallowly and stepped beneath the yellow police tape strung up in an alley between two ancient buildings, either with gargoyles, of all things, watching them from on high. Judging. One's eyes were wide and round and his mouth was open. The other's eyes were narrowed and its teeth were barred. They gave him the creeps.

A bitter gust of wind whipped down the alley and raced up Laxus' pant leg and beneath his coat. He put his hands in his pockets and hunched his shoulders. Ahead, Jellal looked unbothered in his duffle coat and leather gloves. Except for his feet, anyway, he stamped those just as soon as he stopped meters from the body and field techs, trying to get the small bits of snow off his toes before it could melt and make his feet cold. Laxus followed suit.

Levy looked up from the body, one end of the covering sheet in her gloved hand, a pen in her mouth.

"What do we have?" Jellal asked.

"Male, mid-thirties, a receipt from your favourite place in his coat's pocket," Levy said with a wry smile. Laxus groaned.

Jellal asked, "Any identification?"

"Erigor Rumson," Levy replied. "He owned a motor company and was visiting Magnolia on business."

There was a package of cigarettes in Laxus' pocket. He fingered its sharp corner but didn't pull it out. He was still trying to break the habit for real but it was nice to have them. They helped him think. "What else?"

"He was shot once as far as I can tell out here. I'd like to get him back to the lab, though, to have a better look." She glanced down the alleyway to where a small crowd was gathering.

"Fucking vultures." Laxus lifted his hands and his voice. "Hey! Scram!" It was _cold_. How was he supposed to do his damn job and get the hell out of there back into warmth when everyone was trying to gawk and fuck up his crime scene? He got dirty looks. Some people moved off. One did not.

"Detective Dreyar! Can I get a statement?" Jenny Realight looked as perky and annoying as ever, a million bucks in a tailored coat and a pair of slacks beneath boots that must have cost her a pretty penny. "What can you tell me about this latest victim? Do we have another serial killer on our hands? How do you feel about that? Magnolia's crime rate has never been so high. Do you think the police could be doing _more?_ "

"What I think is that the reporters in this town need to cool it. Get out of here, Jenny." Jenny's camera man appeared out of the crowd and zoomed in on the body as much as he could. Laxus used his body to block his view. "Get out of here, will you?"

Jenny said, "The public deserves to know if their safety is in jeopardy. Tell me what you know so that people can arm themselves. With knowledge."

"I've been here for five minutes. We don't know anything yet, other than there's a dead man in the alley. Now, if you please." Last time he laid a finger on her, she'd went straight to Ultear and told her that she'd be pressing charges next time for no other reason that beneath her veneer, lipsticked smile was a wicked bitch. Laxus practiced the hover-hand and waved her away from the scene.

Jenny didn't make any indication of moving. "Who was the deceased?"

"I wasn't lying, Miss Realight," Laxus lied. "I don't know anything yet. The _only_ thing I can tell you is that he was an out of towner. Now, you know how this works. When I get some more answers, you can come to the office and hound me through the _right_ channels. The boss lady gets tetchy when I talk without her permission."

"I'll throw you two if you talk now." She flashed him a wad of cash.

"Money might grease some wheels but these are seized right up." He tempted fate enough seeing Mira and letting her catch shit on film without taking bribes from the local reporters. Ultear didn't need any more ammunition.

Jenny sucked on her tooth. "Well, can I get first interview, then?"

If it would get her out of there? "Sure. You got it, once you go through the proper channels." She still looked at him skeptically. Laxus put his hand over his heart. "Scout's honour."

"Dreyar!" Jellal's voice echoed off the concrete walls behind him. Laxus waved Jenny off. She backed up but not away, choosing to put her phone to her ear and chatter into it, likely ringing Ultear up. It was good enough. Laxus returned to Jellal's side.

"Levy's bagging everything and taking it back for analysis. There weren't any witnesses," Jellal said. "We should pop into Somnium and see what we can learn there."

"Must we?"

"Chin up," Jellal said. " _Tante_ Eileen didn't even threaten us last time."

"Big improvement." Laxus was sure that working homicide, one day, he'd find himself thrown into some shitty, garbage caked dumpster. He was also sure that _Tante_ Eileen was going to be the one to pull the trigger on the decision.

"I'm sure it'll be fine. She'll want the killer caught just as badly as we do."

Jellal was the idealist. Laxus the realist.


	5. Chapter 5

_**V: Eileen** _

Blood the colour of dried molasses dotted the concrete floor of the basement where Eileen did her best and worst work. It wasn't all from the woman tied to a chair in the room's center, but a good portion of it was.

Months, Kyouka had held on for months, taking her punishment with the kind of blind stoicism Eileen would expect from a monk, not the marauder Kyouka was. Kyouka was special. Horrible and traitorous, but steadfast and _committed._ She vowed she wouldn't die in Somnium's basement and thus far, she'd been correct.

"What's today looking like, _Tante_?" Kyouka slurred from her chair. Her lip had split weeks ago after she'd knocked over her chair and landed face-first on the ground. It hadn't ever healed properly, not for lack of trying, mind, Kyouka was wild when Eileen had Gildarts approach her with a needle and thread. And so she bled. It got infected. It swelled until it was so painful, Kyouka allowed Eileen to cleanse it with alcohol. Kyouka hadn't asked for the care, which was a shame, but on the other hand, Eileen hadn't asked to perform it, either. She still, in a round about way, felt like she was winning.

"Is today the day you find your spine and take out my eye? Or will I be short a finger? Or maybe, you've grown tired of pretending you have a taste for this and will release me?" Kyouka sounded hopeful regarding the last.

Kyouka dug her own grave, always. She was so good at it, Eileen thought she missed her calling. Any trepidation Eileen felt coming down here evaporated. "Haven't you been counting the days? It's time for your favourite activity." She started doing this when she realized that there were times she didn't know herself down there. She was still _furious_ with Kyouka, too furious to release her and too furious to simply kill her, but heavy-handedness seemed like a long and dark hole that was too difficult to crawl out of. This was easier.

Kyouka licked her lips; a nervous tick. Eileen smiled. "Come, Juvia."

The heavy soundproofed door opened and Juvia stilted in. Her fingers were _tight_ around the package and plate of glass she carried and her brow glistened with sweat in the glow of the dull overhead light. Kyouka watched Juvia _carefully_ , memorizing the expression she wore, one of torture and happiness. Yes, this route was better than physically hurting Kyouka or Juvia, Eileen affirmed again, as she had the first time she tried it. Thugs beat people, degenerates hired people to do the rough work she had no taste to do herself. She was neither. She was a queen. Or she would be. When Kyouka was smacked, Eileen would do it. When her mind was toyed with, Eileen would do that, too. When Kyouka was toeing the line of addiction, Eileen would be the hand that fed her.

"Here," Eileen commanded and Juvia scurried over in the dress she liked to wear on the stage when she sang, sky blue flecked with gold. The fabric pooled on the ground like water as she kneeled. There would be dirt stains on the knees but she wasn't thinking about that then, her mind was on the package she held and, if Eileen had to guess, that was all.

"Open it."

Juvia's hands shook as she unpackaged the box and exposed a pill bottle. Though she knew the steps, she was so slow, Eileen prodded her. "Prepare it."

Juvia didn't say _'Yes,_ Tante,' before she got to work. Eileen let it go, she was about to be very, very mean, after all. She watched Kyouka to the tune of Juvia crushing the pill with a razor. Kyouka, in her shift covered in sweat stains and blood, again, of her own doing, she _refused_ clean clothes, made a play at meeting Eileen's eyes for the first little bit but she did what she always ended up doing and monitored Juvia's work.

When one of the pills was a fine powder, Eileen helped Juvia stand and took the mirror. She was quivering so badly, she dropped the blade, Juvia, and her eyes were as wide as planets. None of that mattered. Eileen took special care in what came next; it was her favourite part. She wetted her finger and dunked it in the powder. Juvia chewed her cheek hard, jonesing badly. There was iron in her, though, Eileen could see that. She didn't buckle and scrabble and beg. She didn't pick up the blade from the floor and lick the metal clean. She breathed a little heavier watching Eileen rub the powder on her tongue and, when Eileen licked, doused, and held out another finger in the same fashion, Juvia didn't leap at the opportunity.

Eileen retracted her offer. "One day, this won't be the only thing you think about, Juvia."

"Yes, _Tante_?"

"I just can't tell if it'll be because you're better or you're dead."

Juvia flinched. Kyouka smiled like she'd won something or sensed some kind of advantage, seeing that. Eileen wanted to rip that away from her.

"Will you kiss me, Juvia?"

Juvia's fingers, adorned with cheap silver rings, snagged together. Her throat behind her small black choker bobbed. Her eyes dropped to Eileen's mouth and then, with the grace Eileen had hired her on for back before she was Kyouka's, before she was broken and tainted, back when she was just a girl down on her luck on the lam from a life that was just a little too much, Juvia stood and stepped into Eileen and kissed her with conviction and passion and everything Eileen wanted to make Kyouka agitated.

When Kyouka shifted, belying her displeasure, Eileen parted with Juvia and took the powder to Kyouka.

"You'll give me just enough that I'm always thinking about it?" Kyouka challenged.

"I never force you to take it."

"The other option is to sit here alone, in the dark for hours until you decide it's time to come down and punish me again."

"That sounds kindly, considering what you did to me, Kyouka."

Kyouka snorted and looked away. Eileen felt all of a sudden possessed by fury and grabbed Kyouka's chin and forced her to meet her eyes again. "Have you forgotten? You tried to sell my business and my daughter out from under me. You tried to give Erza to the Cardinal."

Kyouka answered with silence, fanning Eileen's anger. She let it come, though she knew she was doing the exact thing she told herself _not_ to. She hated feeling emotional.

"Do you know what he did to his victims? Should I treat you like he treated them? Should I get you high, strip you and fuck you against your will? Should I slit your throat and bathe you in holy water? Do you need a crown of thorns all of your own? And then? What did he do then?" She was gripping Kyouka's chair; Eileen didn't remember making the conscious decision to do so. Kyouka just stared at her blankly so Eileen turned her question to their audience. "Juvia?"

Juvia's voice was mouse-quiet. "He put wires in their bodies, _Tante_. And made them look like they were in prayer."

"And?"

"He left them outside for everyone to see."

"Does my daughter frequent church, Miss Lockser?"

"No, _Tante_."

"No. And the only man she kneels for is the one she wants to. The Cardinal was disgraceful. Is that what you want, Kyouka?"

Kyouka stared.

"Answer me. Is that what you want? I can probably find someone to do it for you. Some nobody on the street really down and out on their luck. You can find anybody to do almost anything these days, for enough money. _Is that what you want_?" Kyouka was still mute. Eileen addressed Juvia again. "What was the most important thing I taught you girls when I hired you?"

"People think silence is implied consent," Juvia chirped back.

"Right." Eileen made herself release Kyouka's chair and reached for Juvia's hand and pulled her in close. It was good to have something else to focus on, though she couldn't seem to get away from dangerous territory. All of the things she'd been sitting on for _weeks_ came rising up to the surface. "If you say nothing, people will assume you don't mind, right, Juvia? Say, if you're walking through the Stacks, for instance, trying to earn a little extra money, and a man picks you up and wants you handcuffed in the back of his van while he does shit to you he can't do in bordellos." Juvia's face was white. "Shit I would _shoot_ a man for even _thinking_ about doing. You say _no_ , right?"

Juvia stammered. " _Tante_ , the money—the police—the drop, it didn't—"

Eileen barked, "We're not talking about that right now." But they would. When Eileen didn't feel herself spiraling into a dark, dark place. It was always there, the manic fits, though on the periphery. Lately, with Kyouka there, they'd been getting worse. Eileen saw it, recognized it, but she couldn't let Kyouka go. "Just answer me. Did you say no?"

"Yes, I said no."

"And you saved yourself some pain." Eileen turned back to Kyouka. "See, it's that easy. Do you want to be treated like the Cardinal treated his victims?"

"No," Kyouka rung out.

"She does have an opinion on the matter," Eileen preened. "Lucky for you, you have me and not the Cardinal, right?"

Kyouka sulked, looking at the wall past Eileen's shoulder.

"Right?"

"Yes," she said reluctantly.

"Yes?"

Kyouka wouldn't give her what she wanted easily. Eileen wetted her finger on her tongue again and rolled it in the pill dust. This she took to Kyouka and swiped it over her cracked lips. Kyouka's mouth opened on the third pass, tentatively. " _Tante_."

Eileen smiled and put her finger in Kyouka's mouth. It was a perverse sort of pleasure. She'd never been so furious with someone but she and Kyouka, they had a lot of history, didn't they? This, if Eileen ignored almost everything, was sort of a game. Kyouka took every speck of fentanyl from Eileen's finger. Eileen was getting her more when the door was tapped on.

" _Tante_?"

"What is it, Gildarts?" He wasn't supposed to interrupt when she was down there, though he did it _frequently_. She couldn't complain too much, his interruptions had kept her from crossing a line or two, or helped her climb back over them when she went too far.

Gildarts opened the door. He watched Kyouka in her chair with her head tipped back and a depreciative smile on her mouth, though he spoke to Eileen. "Detectives are here. They want to talk to you."

They wouldn't go away, either, not without getting what they wanted. Eileen thrust the mirror at Juvia. "Do something with this."

Juvia almost dropped it. She recovered. Thoughts flitted through her mind, clear on her face. Snort it, eat it, dump it on the floor?

"Whatever you want," Eileen said, still in the mood to be cruel. "Just make sure you can still sing later."

Juvia squeezed it until her fingers were white and hurried out of the room. Eileen followed, slower, Gildarts at her side. The door closed with authority. It wasn't likely Kyouka was going to start screaming now but just in case, and the police heard. There wasn't any reason to sour business with Magnolia's peacekeepers if she didn't _have_ to.

"Is it my two favourite detectives?"

"Yes, _Tante._ " Gildarts stopped her at the top of the stairs and examined her. He swiped powder off her bottom lip and then grabbed the door. Eileen paid him with a smile that she let fade before she directed her attention to the two visitors sitting at one of her round tables by the stage.

"Gentlemen."

Both of their heads lifted at the same time. It was true, they encountered each other more lately, out of circumstances that Eileen found nearly unendurable, but they didn't develop an ease in addressing her as others might. They were both still stiff, standing and facing her properly. They both said, _"Tante_."

"It's nine in the morning, I've been up all night, _why_ are you here?"

"Maybe we could move to your office?" suggested Jellal.

Eileen did nothing to hide her annoyance, trailing past him with all the displeasure she could muster. He was used to dealing with women of her blood, it seemed because he wasn't intimidated the way she hoped, following her across the bar to a room that read _Office_ on the solid wood door, albeit further behind. His partner was much more hesitant, looking for potential threats. Somnium wasn't a very nice place for men carrying badges. Especially when they kept coming back, wearing them. No one knew that better than Laxus Dreyar; he'd already been shot at once in Eileen's parking lot.

Back in her element and feeling much more human, Eileen folded herself into her huge desk chair and clasped her hands over her belly. Jellal took up the seat he had on his previous visit while Laxus closed the door.

"What is it now, Detectives? Is there another vagabond dead in the streets?"

"Not a vagabond," Laxus said, taking the seat beside his partner. "A man named Erigor Rumson, some well-to-do out of towner that spent his last night alive here."

Eileen chewed her cheek. "I see."

"Did he see one of your girls, _Tante_? Or was he just here for the bar and the show?"

"He did see someone."

Laxus raised the eyebrow marked through with a severe scar. "Can we get a name or are you going to make us jump through hoops?"

"Mirajane Strauss." She supposed she shouldn't take so much pleasure in revealing _who_ but there was a not so quiet part of her that _hated_ Mirajane and the trouble she caused and Erza's insistence that she remain, even after Lisanna was arrested and committed. Couldn't Erza just let go? Not her rebellious daughter.

Laxus looked like he'd taken up a mouthful of aspirin and they were all melting on his tongue. Jellal was better at hiding his reaction than Laxus was, smooth-faced. "Did he cause any trouble while he was here?"

"None that was reported to me, though I suppose to get a real answer, you'd probably either have to ask Mirajane or my daughter, they keep each other's council."

"And has Mira returned yet this morning?"

"No." Not that she was aware of, anyway.

Laxus said, "She's probably on her way back now." He was going to add more but looked Eileen's way and learned how to shut his mouth. Relationships weren't _forbidden_ amongst her escorts but Eileen greatly discouraged it. Jealous lovers were bad for business. Eileen resisted the urge to tell him that his secret was just as badly kept as Jellal's. Laxus stood and left without waiting for his partner. Jellal lingered.

"Shouldn't you be running after the yin to your yang?"

Jellal's smile was minute. "One more question, _Tante._ Our first victim, Alzack Connell—"

"I told you the last time you were here, he didn't buy time upstairs, Detective. He sat at the bar, drank until I was afraid he'd go blind, and then he left."

"Who was working the bar that night?" Jellal asked. Eileen raised her brow and Jellal supplied, "Mirajane?"

"I don't know why you come to see me, you seem to have all the answers."

"Thank you for your time." He stood and followed his partner out. Eileen listened through the wall to the car's doors open and close out in the parking lot, the engine come alive, tires peel out over gravel. She leaned back in her chair with a sigh.

Gildarts entered her office next and closed the door. Eileen spied him from beneath her lashes. He had a cigarette in his ear, which told her what he was expecting. He wouldn't be _wrong._ She used to visit him infrequently but now every time she dealt with Kyouka, Eileen wanted something from him. It helped take the edge off, it helped her focus.

Gildarts came to her side of the desk and put himself on its flat surface, moving aside her pewter dragon statue to do it. He was brazen, touching her things, though she supposed he'd earned the right.

"It didn't go very well downstairs, did it?"

"She's insufferable."

He didn't offer to do it for her, though Eileen knew he _would._ All she had to do was ask. She rolled her head back on her chair and took her time in meeting his eyes, appreciating him from toe to head. He wasn't Kyouka, of course. He wasn't the last man she'd let grace her bed either, though. He was a little more genuine, yet, he could be cold when he needed to be.

His brow quirked and a faint smile lifted his lips. "Does _Tante_ approve?"

"She does when you don't speak," Eileen replied.

Gildarts' smile widened. Eileen wished he wasn't quite so handsome. "If I don't speak, how am I to tell you that Elmer Drive burned to the ground last night?"

Eileen plucked at Gildarts' pant leg. When she'd found him and his young daughter in the streets years ago, stealing not for fun or for money but for their next meal, not realizing their potential, they'd both been threadbare. Give a man some nice clothes, a little respect and responsibility and he flourished. "Did it?"

"Yes, _Tante._ "

"Was anyone dead?"

"Everyone."

"The arsonist?"

"Still on the lam."

Good. "Thank you, Gildarts."

"What will you do if he gets shot when he goes to Quinn Street?"

"I'll thank the shooter, of course," Eileen replied. "His death will be inconvenient but one less thorn in my side." She wouldn't have noticed if she didn't know Gildarts so well but he flinched. Just barely, but he'd done it. "What is it?"

He didn't try to hide from her. "Natsu's just a kid."

"When you were his age, you'd already had a daughter, a wife and a home. I was already looking for ways to get out from under my husband's thumb. Natsu knows the risks. I made sure he understood and he agreed." Anything to free Lisanna. "Is that a problem?"

"No, _Tante._ " He stood from her desk and got to his knees. Eileen was stiff in turning for him.

"You worry me, Gildarts."

"You know I'm loyal to you."

"I also know you wear your heart on your sleeve and I think it clouds your judgement."

"I'm fine."

"Then prove it to me."

She watched the kindness leak out of him like water leaks from a sink, not immediately fast but _steady._ Soon, he was the blank slate she enjoyed. She spread her legs for him and took him by the tie, the only splash of colour in his ensemble, blue like the sky; like the flecks in his hazel eyes. He was good at taking the punishment she doled out, breathing restricted but did he complain?

Calloused hands scraped Eileen's skin; fingers cut into her thighs. It was part of what she liked about this experience. Kyouka's body had been soft, this was such a contradiction, there was no way Eileen could let her mind wander or trick her into imagining nights long, long ago, as she tended to now whenever she took a woman to bed. Despite the fantasy nature of those thoughts, she suspected it wasn't longing that kept her coming back to Kyouka, she didn't love her, it was something much more perverse than that. Control. Obsession. She could think about her until her mind began to rot.

Not today, though, not then. Gildarts put fingers inside of her and pulled down the bust of Eileen's elaborate and unnecessary renaissance style corset. The top was silk fabric, making his job easier, and the bottom stiff, holding her breasts up with nothing else to confine them.

Gildarts always made the best noises for her, her pleasure was his pleasure, he loved to touch her, he loved to make her bow and pant and ask for more. She would never beg, not vocally, he read her body language, though, and that was good enough for him which meant it was sufficient for Eileen.

He put forward his best performance and when Eileen was satisfied, he came up and kissed her with force, playing a game of push and pull. Eileen let herself get pulled, put on her desk, made to lie back and then spread. Her skirt was pulled up and used as leverage, Gildarts' fist tightening in the fabric and holding her in place while he undid his pants.

She left him with cuts from her nails and bruises from her teeth, she left him with a red cheek and an ear full of degrading words, she left him with lust in his eye and he left her with a kiss on her lips much too sweet. Eileen listened to the door close before she did much. She felt better, she decided as she stared up at the dark wooden plank ceiling. Keeping Gildarts around had been worth it. He wasn't a jealous lover, either, and easily bent to the idea of adding to their parties whenever the mood took Eileen. She felt the beginnings of a smile and quelled it. It was dangerous to want or appreciate much of anything when you had enemies that would see that as a weakness and take advantage of it.

Eileen righted herself and exited her office. Juvia was sitting on the empty stage with her cell phone in hand. She looked up when she saw Eileen and there was fear in her eyes. She did not grovel, though, as other girls may have. Like Kyouka, there was pride in her. Stubborn pride, maybe, foolish, absolutely, but it was admirable.

Eileen took up her favourite seat. "Come."

Juvia stood from the stage and came to her. Her steps weren't exactly steady, telling Eileen everything she wanted to know. She took the seat beside Eileen and sat heavily, bringing with her the scent of clover. Eileen plucked a sagging curl off Juvia's forehead. "Did you take it all?"

"No, _Tante_ ," was a whisper.

"What happened to the rest of it?"

"I threw it out," she stammered, looking even more fearful now. Drugs were money.

Eileen took another strand of hair off Juvia's forehead and Juvia flinched like she was going to be struck. "Have I ever hit you?"

"No, _Tante_."

"No. Kyouka beat you," Eileen said with force, not quite able to hide her annoyance. "I won't play that game." She preferred hers with a little more flare.

"I know." She had pretty eyes when she wasn't hiding them, blue as cornflowers. They were damp now, though. Eileen called on a patience renewed by Gildarts' ministrations and was kinder than she felt, swiping away the errant tear from Juvia's cheek.

"Tell me what happened to your delivery."

"Gray found me."

"Did he arrest you?"

She nodded her head.

"Then what happened?"

"He said he couldn't trace the drugs back to the source and arresting me wasn't going to make a difference."

"So he let you go."

"Yes."

It was a big enough shipment to see her imprisoned for a year, at least, with a lenient judge. But here she was, free. Eileen saw everything clearly. She almost laughed. Life had been fair to Juvia and was still being that way, giving her chance after chance. She had a man that loved her, a daughter, a home to go back to if she could stop thinking about drugs. The drugs that had her in their grip but not nearly as viciously as before. Weeks ago, Juvia would have taken all that, not just skimmed off the top, and returned downstairs for the forgotten pill bottle despite the risk of getting caught. She was surprising. "It must have been hard to throw out the rest of the fentanyl."

Juvia twitched at the mention of the drugs. "Yes."

"Do you think about your daughter when things get bad?"

"Yes."

"Me, too."

Juvia gnawed on lips that had been covered in lipstick but now only carried pink ghosts. "Can I ask you something, _Tante_?"

"By all means." She just might not answer.

"How did you know? About the Stacks?"

"Angel was in the neighbourhood and saw you," Eileen stretched the truth for the sake of stretching the truth; Juvia wasn't _stupid_. She knew by now that she was being watched that day but she was desperate to keep this strained peace between them, positive that Somnium was the only thing she had. "I'll send Gildarts to take care of the man that approached you." Stuff like that lead down a darker road, in Eileen's experience. "And next time something doesn't go your way and you're out on money, don't try to earn it in the Stacks."

"Yes, _Tante._ " Juvia looked like she was going to stand. Eileen kept her there by grabbing her hand.

"I'll have another job for you in a couple of days, Juvia."

" _Tante_ , please, I don't want—"

"It's not a drug run," Eileen cut in.

Juvia tentatively asked, "Then what is it?"

"You'll get the details when they become relevant," Eileen said.

She was wary but obviously relieved for different work. "Okay."

Eileen changed the subject. "Were you going to practice before you go on tonight?"

"A little."

"I'll listen." She was tired but not yet ready for bed.

Juvia returned to the stage and teetered in her heels while Eileen got herself gin and tonic from the bar. There was a TV that, when Somnium was open, played nothing but visual effects. Currently, though, it was tuned to the news. On screen was the asylum where Lisanna Strauss was being kept. Or had been, anyway. The reporter announced that there had been a breakout. Three people were missing, two of the girls and a staff member.

Eileen returned to her seat to listen to Juvia lilting softly into the microphone _White Rabbit_.

* * *

" _Tante_."

Gildarts never came into her private room uninvited, and if he dared, he never would have woken her with such a harsh cadence to his voice. Eileen determined that something was wrong. She was awake in a flash and reaching beneath her pillow for her snub-nosed revolver. "What is it?"

Gildarts came into focus, half swathed in the dull winter sunlight eking through her heavy curtains. He'd put himself back together since their last encounter, his black suit was fresh, the shirt, too. His tie had been straightened and snugged up around his throat. Even his hair had been slicked back and held in place by pomade that smelled like cedar. "It's Kyouka."

Eileen sighed and threw herself back on her pillow. "If she's dead, drop her someplace forgettable."

"She's gone, actually," Gildarts informed her.

Eileen cracked open an eye. "Gone?"

"The basement is empty. She's escaped."

" _How_?"

He didn't have any answers.


	6. Chapter 6

**_ VI: Jellal _ **

The cigarette was out of Laxus' ear and between his fingers while he typed on his phone. He was squeezing that cylinder so tightly, Jellal thought it would break. It was misshapen, for sure, and bits of tobacco were tufting out of the end unkemptly. A solid half a minute passed in silence. Honestly, they'd gone much longer without any words between them but this silence felt strained. Jellal tried,

"Any luck?"

"She's not answering her phone."

"Well, we'll work a different angle."

"What if this is the _only_ angle?"

"You really think Mira could do this to someone?" Jellal turned the wheel, directing the Tahoe down the most likely street Mira would take on her way back from Laxus'.

"Do I think Mira could kill someone?" Laxus put his unlit cigarette between his lips and tipped his head back like he was in deep thought. "If someone was threatening her, I don't know what she'd do."

That could be true about _anyone._ Jellal tried to be reasonable. "No one said anything about foul play."

"Why else does a guy end up dead outside a whorehouse?"

"Wrong place, wrong time?"

Laxus shook his head. "This is something more. I feel it."

Yeah, Jellal did, too. "That doesn't mean Mira's slashing through Somnium's clientele. My theory? _Tante_ Eileen's got an enemy and they're trying to make her and her girls look bad."

Laxus huffed. His phone buzzed and he fumbled it through the air. It hit Jellal's now cold coffee and spilled some of it over the console.

"Watch it," Jellal ordered. "That's good coffee."

"It's fucking cold and gross." There wasn't much heat to Laxus' voice, he was furiously reading his screen. "She's at Warden and Pine."

"What's she doing at the edge of the Stacks?"

Laxus' look was designed to melt skin. "Just turn around, okay?"

Jellal sighed and, after a quick check in his mirror, slowed the Tahoe just enough that it wouldn't flip and U-turned. His coffee slopped again. "Motherfucker."

Laxus had no sympathy, glaring at the cup like he was going to throw it out the window to solve the problem. Since he got off the caffeine, he'd been crankier than usual, which was saying something. Jellal smothered the rest of his complaints and focused on the road.

This part of Magnolia reminded him of an inverted version of utopia. Everything was brightly coloured, all the houses, the sidewalks, but the blues and yellows and reds were coated in filth, too. Siding needed to be washed of spider webs and moth carcasses that lingered even in the winter, sidewalks sprayed with healthy coats of spray paint needed to be torn up and relayed. The city didn't do it because though taxes came in from this part of town, it wasn't nearly as much as others. This place had life. Character. Flaws. Jellal loved it as much as he loathed it; it reminded him of home, of when he was small, and that was unforgivable. He wanted to revisit those years of his life about as badly as a heroin addict wanted to jam needles in their arm. He loved it when he was there but the crawl from memory lane left him itchy and hollow and tired.

On the corner of Warden and Pine, as promised, Mira stood out against all the brightness, a monotone of colour. Hair so blonde it was nearly white, a black jacket around her black-clad hips. She stood on the corner with one foot out, her hip cocked and watched the unmarked cruiser pull up to her side. Laxus undid his window and Mira smiled.

"Gentlemen. My _Tante_ doesn't like it when I get bought on the street but for handsome men like you… I could be persuaded."

"Don't play, Mira," Laxus said shortly. "We have to talk."

Her smile fell a fraction. "We do?"

"At the station, preferably."

He was being unnecessarily curt, Jellal thought. He let Laxus steer his own ship; when he ran into shallow water, the only one he could blame would he himself.

Mira asked, "What's going on?"

Laxus said, "We got a call this morning about another body found near Somnium. We have some questions."

"That you want to ask me?" She was starting to look downright defensive. Jellal squeezed the steering wheel impatiently. Let his partner keep blundering or step in? It was a tough call to make.

"We only want to clear some things up," Jellal heard himself say. "Come on, Mira. Afterward, I'll drive you home."

Mira looked between Jellal and Laxus. Her thoughts were clear; she was debating on telling them to fuck themselves. She didn't _have_ to come in, did she?

"Whether or not you have something useful to add if you walk away, it's going to look bad," Jellal told her. Mira huffed and grabbed the back door handle. The interior light came on when she got in and a gust of cold air followed. The scent of her perfume filled the truck. Jellal put it in drive and got out of the area. He could feel too many eyes on them and didn't care for it at all. The Stacks was even less kindly to the police than Somnium or _Prodigure_ were. There were rules in those places. The Stacks? Anything went, from street gangs to hookers to thugs with mugshots that had a bone to pick with the last set of cops that picked them up.

"What were you doing out here?" Laxus asked.

Mira shrugged. "Just wanted to take the long way home."

Was she lying? It was hard to tell no matter how long Jellal examined her in the rearview mirror.

Laxus muttered, "The dangerous way."

"It's daytime, and no one messes with _Tante_ Erza's favourite."

Laxus opened his mouth to continue the argument, looked Jellal's way and let it fade.

"Don't let me stop you," Jellal said. "I'm just a fly on the wall."

Laxus was getting good with his dirty looks. Jellal smiled.

Mira leaned forward in her seat and grabbed the cage separating the back from the front. "Your grandfather took his pills."

Laxus looked relieved for the subject change. "Yeah?"

"No problem. He was sweet, actually, gave me a kiss on the cheek and told me to have a nice day. And told me to tell you to pick up Chinese food on the way home. The good stuff, from China town. He's decided he doesn't want Porlyusica's cooking anymore. He's convinced that's what's playing with his heart. He was rather theatrical about it."

"Sounds about right," Laxus griped.

"I told him the ghost pain in his chest was love." She grinned. "He thinks I'm a kook."

The foray into personal territory was a mistake, Jellal knew it before Laxus did but Laxus caught up. They were bringing his lover in for questioning and he was talking about dinner. He put his forehead against the window and the conversation withered. Mira released the cage and sat back. The rest of the car ride was done in silence.

Jellal was glad to see the MPD come out of a wall of freshly falling snow. He pulled into the parking lot, put the Tahoe in a space near the front door that was usually reserved for visitors, and hurried around the back of the car to let Mira out. Laxus was slower moving, on his phone again, checking up with his grandfather, likely.

Mira shimmied out of the backseat when she was able and tromped confidently toward the entrance. Jellal kept pace with her; Laxus was slower.

Inside, the usual din surrounded them. Jellal breathed in perfume, coffee, cigarettes, paper, and less pleasant things, sweat, used deodorant, drugs, and piss. It was a strange thing to love the conglomerated smell but he did. It reminded him of order and control and, beneath all of that, _Tante_ Alba, bizarrely enough, and the man she wanted him to be when she put him through Police Foundations and helped him get a decent job years and years ago.

Jellal felt eyes on him and looked up. Ultear watched from the second-floor bannister, a sentinel in a cut and prim skirt suit. Her eyes moved from Jellal to Mirajane and stuck; her lipsticked mouth pursed. She pulled away from the bannister and it looked for a moment like she was going to come down the stairs and meet them but then something caught her attention and she was pulled away. She'd catch up to them, eventually.

Jellal guided Mira to the right, past the desk that read _Reception_ and down a wide hallway to the interrogation room. The same interrogation room her brother had shot a man in just a few months before. It had been rigorously cleaned, the table replaced because the blood wouldn't come out of the wood. They'd gone with metal this time. More practical.

When the door was open, Mira moved in and dropped herself in the chair opposite and put her purse up on the table.

"Just a moment, Miss Strauss," Jellal told her and his formality earned him a disgusted glare. It couldn't be helped. Jellal closed the door on her and addressed his partner. "Go to the ME and see what they've got on Rumson. Time of death, that kind of thing. Bring the file back with you. I'll go in and get started."

"The technical shit is your wheelhouse. You go do that and I'll get started," Laxus argued.

Jellal was plain with him. "I don't want you in there with her alone and Ultear's not going to, either."

"Pardon?"

"You have history."

"So you think I'm going to tell her to lie or something? Everything in that fucking room is _recorded,_ " Laxus hissed.

Jellal raised his brow. "We're just asking a couple of questions but we need to do this _right._ Which means we don't give anyone any means to say we fucked up. Just go get the file, see if there's any pertinent information and meet me back here."

Laxus muttered something unsavory beneath his breath and stalked off. There was a rookie cop in the hall that didn't get out of his way soon enough and Laxus almost shoulder checked him to the ground. It was Meredy coming around the corner that braced his fall. She looked startled but had always been quick on her feet. She looked after Laxus, then turned her gaze of disbelief on Jellal.

"What's going on with him?"

"Mirajane's in for questioning," Jellal said briefly.

"The Somnium case?"

"Yeah."

"I want to sit in on your interrogation," Meredy said.

Jellal laughed. "You know I still have to work with Laxus, right?"

"I don't care what he thinks of me or my profession," Meredy said. "It's irrelevant."

Jellal scrutinized her. "Why do you want in?"

Meredy looked up and down the hallway before leaning in. Jellal had to bend to offer her his ear. She said lowly, "The ME found poison in the three victims."

"They were poisoned?"

"Yeah. He just sent his report to Ultear. She was going to call you but here you are."

"And poison's usually a woman's weapon."

Meredy smiled tightly. "If you don't mind." She sidestepped Jellal and entered the interrogation room but not before Laxus came back around the hallway with a yellow file folder in hand. He caught sight of Meredy's telltale hair and his face screwed up in displeasure. He got it under wraps by the time he was at Jellal's side.

"Guy was poisoned." At least Laxus had the decency to speak quietly.

"Yeah." Jellal took the file from his partner and skimmed. _Methaldextra Hydrate._ It was a synthetic poison and, according to the notes, uncommon.

"Doc says the dosage wasn't right, though, if it was supposed to kill him. Rumson would have been stumbling around, sick before he fell."

"So our killer was watching, realized that the poison wasn't going to work, approached and put one in the victim's chest." Jellal didn't remember seeing any piles of vomit. A guy like Rumson, proud type, would have been warier of hiding that kind of thing, though, going behind a dumpster or something, covering it up with snow. He flipped through the file and saw what the techs had put together so far. They had a bullet casing, a few shoe prints left in the snow, a cigarette that they couldn't definitively say was the killer's or not.

Not much of anything.

"I would say it's professional but with the poison dosage…" Laxus trailed off.

"Someone's been experimenting." A professional killer in the making. He glanced through the door. Meredy was already chatting with Mira, getting a feel for her. He glanced sideways at his partner; Laxus' expression was bitter through and through.

"Do you want to sit this one out?"

"No." That he sounded sure on.

They'd been in this situation once before but back then their positions had been reversed. It had been too close to the surface for Jellal. He remembered the need to be in there asking the questions.

"Shall we?" Jellal led the way.

Upon entry, Mira looked away from Meredy and locked her eyes on Laxus. "You said you had questions for me but she's making it sound like you think I killed someone. Should I have a lawyer or something?"

"It's your right," Laxus said. "But really, no one's accusing you of anything. We just want to understand everything that went on last night."

Mira's shoulders fell a couple centimeters. She trusted him, Jellal could see it. It made him feel a little bit guilty because he was about to abuse that trust to get the answers he wanted. Jellal dropped himself into the chair beside Meredy. She'd been doodling in her notepad but also jotting down some things. Mira's penchant for looking away when she lied, how when Lisanna's name was mentioned, she smiled but they were all fake. Her laughter? Also put on. Those things could have just been stress—Lisanna was a topic she didn't much care to talk about—but to Meredy, who was compiling a list of things, that meant something else entirely. He looked away from the notes; he didn't want them to cloud his judgement. "Let's start with how your night went, beginning to end."

Mira spoke with drawn-out words. "I," was elongated, the pause that came after it made Jellal think there was a memory gap. Or she was lying. Could be she was just nervous. Mira took in a breath and started again. "I spent some time with Erza. And then I had a client upstairs, a woman that had this thing with ankles." She paused, deciding how much detail she needed to go into. "When she was gone, I had another one, Mister Rumson. He had a couple drinks, wanted vanilla stuff, and then he left Somnium _."_

_"_ He was drinking with you?"

"He was drinking. I wasn't."

"And where did those drinks come from?"

"I have a small bar in my room. I made them," Mira answered.

Jellal wrote that down, too. They were going to have to send some people over to check out her supplies. "Then?"

"My work night was over. I had a shower and then I got my stuff together and I went to see one of my partners."

Meredy clarified, "A lover?"

"Yes."

"This lover. Do they have a name?"

"Yep."

Meredy's brows went up. "Miss Strauss, you're a person of special interest in a murder investigation, you need to be forthcoming."

"Lockser," Mira supplied. "Juvia. Juvia Lockser. I was with her from four to about seven thirty."

It was a name Meredy was familiar with. She was good at hiding her feelings on the matter.

"Thank you." Jellal checked the time of death. The coroner put it around five. He wrote that down in the notepad he took from his pocket; it was good to have all the facts there in front of him. "Then what?"

Mira said, "We spent some time together, and then that was it. I was tired. Next thing I know, you guys are picking me up."

"Is there anyone to corroborate your story?"

"Juvia," Mira suggested. Everyone's favourite liar. Jellal put her name down, too, and, in the silence that came after, scrolled through the ME's file more thoroughly.

"What's your highest level of education, Miss Strauss?"

"My education?" she repeated.

Jellal met her eyes briefly. "Yes."

Her neck went red. "I graduated high school."

"No college or university?"

"Not yet."

"Plans?"

The redness moved into her cheeks. "Things have been… tight, you know?"

Escorts made good money. Jellal wondered where she was putting it all. That wasn't very relevant, though. "That's not what I asked. Do you have _plans_?"

"No. No, not right now."

Jellal scribbled down that, too. "What would you say was your area of interest in school?"

"Um…" She looked confused and off-balance, which was exactly where Jellal wanted her to be. "I don't know."

"You must have had a favourite subject."

"I like literature and gym."

"Science?"

"I took biology in grade eleven."

"Yeah?"

"Yes, and I failed." Her neck was even brighter.

Jellal scribed that down, too. "Thank you."

Mira didn't accept his thanks. "What the fuck does this have to do with _anything_? Did you just bring me in here to make me feel bad about myself?"

"Not at all. Those are all the questions I have right now. Meredy?"

"I don't have anything else," Meredy said. "If I could have a moment of your time, though." She motioned to the hallway.

Jellal smiled. "Just a minute, Miss Strauss."

Laxus got up and followed them out, slower. Meredy closed the door then crossed the hall to a small meeting room with a round table she leaned against. She wasted no time. "I'd need more time with her but I think it's possible."

"Pardon?" Laxus asked.

"That she's your killer. She has a history of mental illness in her family and she showed signs of sociopathy when I questioned her about numerous things."

"Such as?"

"Superintendent Torres' death," Meredy said.

Laxus snorted. "What the fuck is that going to tell you? Ask me about him and you'll get the same response. He was a douche that deserved what he got."

Jellal grabbed Laxus' shoulder and pulled him back an inch because Meredy looked like she'd been slapped. "What he _means_ is that judging her response based on the death of the man that killed her brother and tried to kill her friend likely isn't going to produce the best result."

Meredy poked him in his chest. "I don't tell you how to do your job, don't tell me." She looked up at Laxus; she'd been shocked before but she'd buried that emotion. "Miss Strauss didn't _care_ about the Superintendent's death. She wasn't happy, she wasn't sad. Not about Torres and not about Elfman. People show their grief in a lot of different ways, they get over it using various coping methods, some people cry it out, some people close down. Some people get mad, Detective, and they lash out. Mirajane, though, she's eerily calm. I've seen it before; people get this way when they feel like they're in control. They have a plan of action; they're working toward something."

"She didn't seem in control when I asked her about her education," Jellal said and earned himself a grateful look from Laxus.

"That's a part of her life she hasn't been able to steer in the right direction. It would irritate her—"

Laxus spoke over her. "Sociopaths are antisocial. Mira has friends."

"I'm not here to name her guilty or innocent, Detective. My job is to see if she's capable of murder and the answer is _yes._ In my professional opinion, I _do_ think she's capable."

"Listen, Meredy, I appreciate your voodoo psychology shit but I've been a cop for a long time. I've _lived_ with people like the one you're explaining here. This isn't Mira." He tapped her paper for emphasis and Meredy almost dropped her notebook. "The evidence doesn't say it's her, either, we're just checking out our leads, sussing out the situation. Stay out of our investigation until we need you. Got it?" Laxus didn't wait for Meredy to confirm, storming out into the hallway.

"Jellal?" Meredy pleaded.

Jellal puffed. "Try not to take it too harshly."

"There's merit to what I'm saying."

"Yeah, there is. I'll keep an eye on her and an open mind. Thanks for your input." Like Laxus, he left her there. His partner was in the hallway, looking at the interrogation room's door.

"You buying what she's peddling?" Laxus asked without meeting Jellal's eyes.

"Not if Mira's got an alibi." Jellal entered the room again. Mira was exactly where he left her, spinning a lock of hair around and around her finger. Her nails, painted black, looked stark against the pale colour.

"So?"

"So, that's all. I'll show you out, Miss Strauss."

She stood; her legs quivered slightly, belying that calm demeanor Meredy picked out. She managed to get herself under control and look graceful leaving the interrogation room. Laxus was hot on their heels, following them all the way out into the parking lot again where the skies had opened up in a full-fledged snowstorm. Mira tried to keep walking; she was fast, moving past the car. The storm tried to grab her up and take her visage away.

Jellal called, "Get in, Mira. we'll drive you back to Somnium."

"I can walk just fine."

"Please?" Jellal asked. "It's snowing bad."

"Which means it's safer to _walk_." Her foot slipped and she almost fell, catching herself by some magical means. A gust of wind almost took her down again.

Jellal said, "We have chains on the tires."

Mira huffed dispassionately and swung back around. She climbed into the backseat and slammed the door. Jellal climbed in, too, and brought with him a mountain of snow. Laxus took the time to actually scrub the white stuff from his hair and his shoulders. Jellal saw his care for what it actually was—he was dawdling, gathering his thoughts. Jellal appreciated the effort but he knew his partner well.

Predictably, when Laxus got in, he turned in his seat and pegged Mira to hers. Without tact, he said, "You lied."

Mira drummed her fingers on her arm. "About who I was seeing this morning?"

"Yeah. That."

"I did not actually lie. I _did_ see Juvia. She had a bad night, I helped her out and then I saw you."

"You should have _disclosed_ that."

"Why? It's not anyone's business."

"It _is,_ Mira."

"Both of you have mouths," she snapped. "Don't just pin the lie on me. Either one of you could have said, 'What about when you showed up at the Dreyar household, Miss Strauss?' But you didn't."

She was right, of course.

Laxus said, "We're going to have to say something. It's going to come out and the fallout isn't going to be good."

"If you _do_ say I was with you afterwards, the investigation will be taken away from you, won't it?"

"Likely," Jellal cut in.

Mira said, "I don't want anyone else taking it. They won't work fairly, they'll just choose the easy route, tell me I'm guilty and I'll be locked up just like Lisanna and I didn't _do_ anything to those men. So please, don't."

Jellal's window was tapped upon. He turned and found Ultear peering into the cruiser. He held back his swears and rolled down the window. "Captain." He tried on a guiltless smile.

Ultear looked past Jellal for Mira. "We just got news, Miss Strauss. Your sister just escaped the asylum."

"Escaped?" Mira mimicked.

"She's left with another inmate and a staff member. I'd like you to come inside and give another statement if you please."

"A statement? I don't—I don't know anything."

Jellal felt bad for her in that moment, she looked like she'd been hit by a freight train.

Ultear left the driver's side and came around the front of the vehicle. Jellal watched her open up the back door and offer Mira her hand. "We're treating this as a missing person case. _Any_ information you have that could lead us to her whereabouts would be crucial in speeding her return. Her doctors have expressed concern, she's without her medication and is with a volatile and very sick individual."

Mira took Ultear's offered hand numbly. Laxus started to get out of the car; a withering look from Ultear stopped him. "What are you doing?"

Laxus fell back to his seat. "I don't know."

She had him in her crosshairs, no doubt. "If you have a lead in your current case, follow it. We'll catch up when you get back."

Laxus closed his door. Ultear slammed the back one. Jellal watched her and Mira ascend the station steps again. Mira stumbled almost drunkenly, Ultear defied gravity and nature in her high heels, taking the steps like ice and snow couldn't bring her down.

"She's twitchy," Jellal said.

"Replace the T with a B and then we'll talk." Laxus reached forward and cranked on their police radio. The lines were abuzz with chatter. Jellal picked a few names out of the noise. Lisanna Strauss, Kagura Mikizuchi. Orderly Freed Justine.

"I'll be damned. This is a pile of shit sitting in front of a fan," Laxus said.

"Eloquent."

"You got a better name for it? Kagura was the Cardinal's—" He fumbled. Jellal supplied,

"Protégé?"

" _Yes._ Protégé. His psycho in training. She's brainwashed some poor sod, busted out and taken Mira's sister with her. What the actual _fuck_?"

Jellal sighed and put the car in gear and turned out toward Somnium.

"What are you doing?"

"You heard the Captain. _Work the case_. I'm working the fucking case. Get on the phone and get some warrants going, we need techs to check out those bottles in Mira's room."

"Okay, but we should be going to the asylum. The Cardinal was _ours_. This is _ours._ You know she's going to throw it at us."

"Until she does, I'm going to try to catch our killer."

" _Kagura_ —"

"Escaped a mental institution for the criminally insane. She hasn't killed anyone."

" _Yet_ ," Laxus muttered.

"Yet," Jellal conceded. "Or ever before. She didn't pull any triggers when she was sipping Zero's poison."

"No, she was just beating people with voting power because they couldn't be bullied into making prostitution illegal. Gateway violence. It can only escalate from there."

Jellal looked at his partner. "We're not going to the asylum. We're going to go pick up Juvia Lockser and she's going to corroborate Mira's story because otherwise, she's looking pretty fucking suspicious."

Laxus sighed and chose to look out the window.

"Hey," Jellal said. "I know it's not her."

"Yeah?"

Jellal pushed the file at his partner. "What'd the corner say about the tox screen?"

"Methaldextra hydrate," Laxus repeated.

"And?"

"It's a synthetic poison. So _what?_ "

" _So_ , it looks like our killer's been experimenting, right? Trying to get the dosage right?"

"What about it?"

"Seems like to me whoever's doing this is trying to treat it like a science. Mira's not a scientist, and the only formal education she has is high school. They don't teach you this stuff in grade eleven biology class."

"The killer is doing a _shitty_ job," Laxus spat. "That's why those people were _shot._ You heard Mira. She _failed_ science. Your reasoning here is actually incriminating her."

Laxus crossed his arms stubbornly over his chest. Jellal propped his elbow on the window sill and navigated the snowy streets one-handed. It went on thusly until Somnium was in view and Jellal broke the silence. "You need to check your shitty mood. _Tante_ Eileen's going to be pissed we're back again and I don't want you stepping on her toes."

Laxus puffed out his cheeks and let out his next breath slowly. When he was on empty, he seemed calmer.

"Good?"

"I'm good. Meredy just pissed me off."

"I know."

"She just makes all these assumptions and doesn't ever fucking talk to a person for any good amount of time about anything _meaningful_ , she just—" His voice was getting loud again.

"Hey," Jellal interjected. "If we're going to do this case," which it was looking very much like they were, "Then we need to be careful. We need to be smart. We need to be calm. You know that."

"Yeah." Laxus' irritation was still simmering below the surface.

"You're on edge. What's going on?"

"I don't know."

"Your grandfather?"

"No. He's fine. It's just…"

" _What_?"

"Mira was doing that thing again this morning, where she was wearing my tie," Laxus purged without much time to spare, Jellal put the Tahoe's tires into Somnium's ploughed lot.

"Again?"

"Yeah. I don't know if she was crying but it's _weird._ Do you think it's weird? Does that make her crazy?"

Jellal had put more thought into Laxus' conundrum than he liked to admit. The answer was _yes,_ a little, but he was more tactful and lied. "No."

"Then why does she keep doing it?"

"I think she's sad she doesn't get to wear one."

" _What_?"

Jellal said briefly, "She wanted to be a cop, right?"

"Yeah."

"She feels like she can't now."

"Because she _can't_. You know as well as I do they won't hire her on after that garbage with her brother. He was a thug for the mob. Zeref's right-hand."

"Exactly. She's _sad,"_ Jellal said again. "She's looking at herself in your gear thinking about what she can't do."

Laxus' bitterness leeched out of him and what was left was limp. "Guess that's better than being a sociopath."

"I guess."

Laxus checked himself in the mirror while Jellal pulled up nice and close to the front doors and turned the car off.

"Expecting a date or something?" Jellal ribbed.

"I thought if I looked pretty, _Tante_ Eileen would be less likely to shoot me."

It was hard to tell if he was joking or not. "If Angel wants you to give up your gun, don't give her attitude again, alright?"

"Yeah." Laxus threw open his door and stepped into the blizzard. Over the howling wind, _Tante_ Eileen's voice carried, loud and clear and _violent._ Jellal almost turned around and got right back into the Tahoe, he didn't feel ready for a warzone today, but he saw scarlet and knew Erza was in there, and he saw blue. Juvia was there as well.

Jellal pulled open the door and waved Laxus in. "After you."

"Thanks." Laxus unclipped his gun before entering. Jellal imitated him.


	7. Chapter 7

**_VII: Juvia_ **

Grainy wood nearly stripped of all its lacquer was marked deeply with dents and scratches. Each one had a story to tell. Juvia put the pad of her finger in every one immediately available to her and guessed at that tale. The words came at her too fast and tangled. Her mind whirled quickly with the tail end of the fentanyl she'd lapped up but it never helped her think.

A hand tipped with dark red nails slapped down on the table in front of her and Juvia jumped.

"I should gut you right here and right now."

_Tante_ Eileen was screaming at her and Juvia couldn't keep up with why. Something about Kyouka. Kyouka. Mean, awful Kyouka. _Tante_ Kyouka.

"Do you have nothing to say for yourself?"

"Mother." That was _Tante_ Erza, descending the creaking wooden stairs. Her nails were white, painted that way to contrast with Mira's black, and curling around the dark bannister. Juvia watched her hands slide over the railing, watched her hair bounce, and then her breasts. She was moving quickly. Disjointedly.

_That's you._

_You._

_Juvia_.

_She_ was Juvia.

Ju

Vi

A

"What?" _Tante_ Eileen's voice was a whip snapping loudly in Juvia's ear.

"Why are you screaming? We still have guests upstairs; they can hear you."

_Tante_ Eileen's hand smacked on the table again. "I want them out."

"Out?" Erza was on the ground level now. Her toes were bare, legs, too, for a long, long way. Everything else was covered in something black. She was lovely in black. Like an ember or something. She was burning on top, and then there was the black. What was the pale, then?

"Out," _Tante_ Eileen said dangerously. "Get them out. Gildarts?"

"Yes, _Tante_."

His shoes clopped on the stairs, taking him to the second floor. Doors opened. Women and men made sounds of surprise. Some protested. Gildarts removed them.

Something was _wrong_. Somnium never kicked out its guests.

Juvia started to shiver.

"This is unnecessary." Erza came to Juvia's side and grabbed the back of her chair while men and women started funneling down the stairs. There wasn't many. Four. Gildarts was on their heels, back down the stairs and at _Tante_ Eileen's side again.

"I decide what's necessary," Eileen said. "Where did she go?"

It took Juvia some time to recognize _Tante_ Eileen was speaking to her. So long, in fact, that her chin was grabbed and her face was lifted, forcing her to look up. _Tante_ Eileen was without her usual makeup, her hair was sleep-tousled and she was in her bedclothes.

"Where. Is. She?"

"Um..." Juvia licked her lips. They were dry. She was so thirsty.

_Tante_ Eileen snorted dispassionately and turned to Gildarts beside her. She didn't ask permission in reaching into his jacket roughly and yanking out one of his many guns and he didn't stop her, barely staggering with the roughness of her hands. That gun's barrel met Juvia's forehead and she let her eyes drift closed. It wasn't how she imagined dying. She thought it would be a man or a drug or her own lack of effort that would put her in her grave. This, though.

"Mother." Erza's voice was every bit as sharp as Eileen's had been.

"Tell me where she is! Where is Kyouka? Where did she go? Tell me or I'll splatter your brains across the floor right now."

Strangely, Juvia could still hear the music playing over the speaker in the background. She had a set list of songs she was practicing, the next being House of the Rising Sun. The guitar plucked and teased and wept, doing all the things that she could not.

The gun dug in harder. "Juvia."

"She doesn't know, Mother. Put the gun—"

There was a little bell over the front door. It jingled now and cold, snowy air rushed into Somnium's belly. Juvia's skin lifted in goosebumps and her teeth clacked together hard.

"This looks serious." That was a new voice. Deep, male. Without looking at him, Juvia knew that he was playing at being calm. Unaffected, wry.

"Get out, Detectives. This doesn't concern you."

_Detectives._

"It does, actually. That's Mira's alibi you've got a gun on, _Tante_."

One moved. Juvia saw a splash of blonde. Fernandez and Dreyar.

_Tante_ Eileen laughed and it wasn't even the least bit kind. " _This_ little worm?"

"Put the gun down, please."

"I don't think so. This is my house and my rules. I say what goes and right now, I say a bullet."

"There are a lot of things a woman like you can get away with," Detective Fernandez said in a voice that wasn't quite as baritone as his partners. "But murder right in front of a pair of cops? I can't fudge the paperwork that much and you don't have that kind of sway, _Tante_."

"Then I guess a pair of cops go sinking, too, don't they?"

In Juvia's periphery, men moved to put their hands on their guns. Erza, too, moved, grabbing the gun that was still pressed against Juvia's head. " _Mother_." _Tante_ Erza was wearing a bracelet. It winked, pink pearl, in Juvia's view. She watched it, fascinated. "Juvia's done nothing, I promise. I was watching her sing for most of the morning and when she wasn't singing, I made her breakfast. Do you remember, Juvia?"

She could still taste the buttery toast on her lips when she licked them. "Yes, _Tante._ "

"We were in the kitchen together."

"Afterward, then."

"Afterward, we came out here and sat down to eat."

Juvia remembered what happened after that. Her head had felt heavy. She couldn't remember the last time she'd slept. She'd crossed her arms and put her head down on the bony pillow. _Tante_ Erza's fingers had moved through her hair so rhythmically. She was speaking. About _what_ , exactly, was fuzzy, it made Juvia smile, though. _Aria, maybe._ Or maybe Gray. Yes. Detectives. She was talking about detectives. How they didn't have much business with Somnium's crop but they always seemed to find themselves there, nosing into everyone's business.

_Tante_ Erza admitted that she liked it, though. It helped keep her crooked mother from being too crooked, with the police always around.

In memory, her fingers twisted again in Juvia's hair, slowly, slowly. ' _I'm sorry she's so mean to you, Juvia._ ' Generally, _Tante_ Erza ignored her, but since Juvia had come back from the night she spent at Gray's, she'd caught the _Tante_ looking at her on several occasions. That was the first time she'd spoken to her, however.

In real time, _Tante_ Eileen said, "That doesn't mean anything."

"It means something because I'm telling you it does," Erza rebuked. "Now give me this." She pulled on the gun. _Tante_ Eileen didn't give it up easily, but she _did_ give it up. "Apologize to them." Erza pointed at Jellal and Laxus, "And to Juvia, too. When we're done here, I'll help you think of other avenues."

_Tante_ Eileen wasn't a woman that lost gracefully. She let go of the gun and _harrumphed_ in disgust and clopped across the room with large, agitated steps. Gildarts followed. Juvia didn't need to watch them to know _Tante_ Eileen ripped open the door leading to the basement and entered its shadowy depths, she knew the sound of that door opening well, had focused on it every time it was entered, because down there was her personal monster and her saviour. _Tante_ Kyouka.

Tante _Kyouka is gone._ That still hadn't sunk in for Juvia. _Gone._ Did she rejoice? Did she cry? Did she run in fear because she hadn't tried to get _Tante_ Kyouka out _earlier_?

"What the hell was that about?" Detective Dreyar's shoulders hadn't fallen an inch beneath his tan coloured trench coat. Juvia was slowly coming back to herself and recognized tension.

"Nothing important," Erza said.

"Nothing important? I almost got to see a woman's brains but, oh, nothing important."

Erza slapped the gun she'd taken from her mother down on the table in front of Juvia. Juvia jumped; everything made her _jump_. Everything was too loud and too grand and _just—_

"That's what I said. Nothing important. Why are you here?" Erza's fingers were back in Juvia's hair, gentle again, brushing it back from her forehead and working through it in a way that soothed her nerves. Made her eyes close.

"Is she high?"

"Is that relevant?"

"I need her to answer some questions." Detective Fernandez wasn't as high-strung as his partner, patient. "About last night."

"Can you answer questions, Juvia?" Erza's voice was equally as patient.

Juvia opened her eyes again. Detective Fernandez had taken a seat, spinning the chair backwards and straddling it. His partner was scrolling over Somnium's railings for her guards. Juvia looked up behind him and saw Angel sitting with her legs between the bannisters, face pressed against the wood casually. The moment she was spotted, she flashed a grin that never met her eyes and waggled her fingers. Dreyar's responding expression was a lift of a lip, almost a snarl.

"Juvia?"

Juvia opened her mouth; what came out wasn't a _yes,_ but a question of her own. "Do you miss _Tante_ Alba?"

Detective Fernandez looked taken aback. "Every day."

"She was kind, though."

His smile was sardonic. "She was self-serving and obtuse and always on the opposite side of the law."

"That doesn't mean she was unkind."

"No. I suppose not."

Juvia couldn't mimic the softness she saw in him when he thought of his _Tante_. Kyouka was unkind. Juvia drew in a breath. "What do you want?"

"I want you to recount last night."

"Last night?"

"From beginning to end."

"Everything you can remember, Juvia," _Tante_ Erza said.

"I didn't have a very good night." Juvia felt like she was using someone else's body to speak.

"What happened?"

"There was a man."

Detective Fernandez's eyes softened like he knew where this was going. It would have been easier to let him think that way.

"He had Apache and was snorting it and I just…"

"People come in here and dope all the time." He wasn't quite following.

Erza cleared some things up. "My mother told her if she had any she'd be out of a job."

Juvia felt the detective's gaze on her and knew what he was thinking. She was high just then, wasn't she? Suddenly, she wanted to spill everything, the room in the basement, _Tante_ Eileen bringing her down there and making her crush up the pills, putting her with men that habitually got high before they wanted to fuck. She felt it all crashing down on her, and beneath the weight, she could barely breathe.

_Tante_ Erza stroked her hair calmly, rhythmically. The sensation pulled Juvia out of the storm.

"Afterwards?"

Juvia swallowed the lump in her throat. "He left because I couldn't—I was sick. I couldn't focus." How long did she remain there, back against the wall, knees drawn up to her chest, mean words and white powder floating through her mind? Long enough that she was _cold._ "And then Mirajane came in." Juvia always imagined her as a cloud. Sometimes, she was full of temper, like a summer's storm, ready to burst, or frigid, like a winter's gentle but no less hostile rage. Other times, she was soft, belonging to spring.

She'd been soft then, floating into the room and crouching by Juvia's side only to pull her back up again. Onto the bed and beneath the covers, all the way, even their heads. She'd been warm and soft and comforting, giving Juvia something very different to think about. She could still feel her lips and hear her croon.

"Around what time?"

She couldn't remember exactly. "It was early," Juvia said.

"I need a time."

"I don't have one. I know the sun still hadn't risen, though."

The detective pressed his lips together as he scribbled something down on a pad of paper. "What about when she left?"

That she remembered. She'd checked her phone and texted Gray to ask for a picture of Aria with her new backpack. He hadn't sent back any words but he had given her the picture she asked for. "It was just after seven."

He seemed satisfied. "Thank you." His next words were directed at _Tante_ Erza. "I have men coming here with a warrant."

Erza's fingers stopped. " _What?"_

"Rumson was poisoned, Mira said they were drinking, I need to check everything she's got. I figured your mother wasn't going to be forthcoming with inviting us up so…"

"You could have asked."

"May I go upstairs and look at Mira's bar?"

"No."

"And this is why I have a warrant, _Tante_."

Erza said something rude. He accepted it with grace.

"Can I go?" Juvia interrupted. She didn't want to sit there anymore. She was tired and frustrated with herself and just needed to _do_ something. Remember who she was. Or _whatever._

"Can I have a number to contact you at?" Erza's detective asked. "Just in case we have more questions."

Juvia took her phone off the table and searched through the information for her own number. She spun it back around so he could copy it. His letters were long and sharp and neat. His smile was warm. "Thank you, Miss Lockser."

Juvia stood stiltedly and went to the closet by the front door. From it, she pulled out the nicest thing she owned, a long, brown suede coat with wool lining. In donning it, she felt warm for the first time since Mirajane left her and _Tante_ Eileen collected her for Kyouka's torture. She had boots that matched the coat; tall, wool-lined, warm. unfortunately, it didn't match her dress. Juvia didn't want to bother changing, she was beyond silly things like _matching_.

Winter was in a fury, throwing snow around Somnium's parking lot without regard. Juvia hunched against the gusting wind and started walking. The roadside shoulder was deep with snow. It was hard walking, her heart was pounding not even five minutes in. Occasionally, a snowplough would come by, shoveling snow or dropping salt, and she'd have to get into the ditch to avoid being picked up and thrown away, too. She didn't think the drivers would even notice, it was so blindingly white out and she doubted she'd make much of an impact on the blade.

At first, Juvia thought she didn't know where she was going when she passed by motels and graveyards, restaurants and shops, she felt lost, but then out of the white came Aria's school and all she could think was, _of course_. She almost knew who she was and what she was doing when she looked at Aria.

The parking lot was U shaped and full, busses lining up outside the double front doors, waiting for the final bell to ring and the flood of students to come rushing out, other parents who perhaps didn't trust the busses to bring their children home safely waited in the Visitor Parking area, cars running, heaters blasting, windshield wipers furiously scraping over windshields that were building ice. The whole world seemed alive around her, and yet, she wasn't _part_ of it. She could hear no voices or see no faces. She was the only one silly enough to be out in the storm.

A gust of wind buffeted her face. She leaned back against the _Magnolia Public School_ sign behind her, sunk into the collar of her coat and put her hands in the pockets. She was still cold. Never before did she remember being so _cold_ all the time. Before she saw any clients now, she dunked her hands in hot water, to make them warm to the touch, and afterwards, she spent an hour at least soaking in a hot tub, all the way up to the bottom of her nose, and sometimes, when she could hold her breath, below that. She could close her eyes and imagine that just _so._ Vividly. She stopped shivering.

The school bell rang. Juvia heard it vaguely. She cracked open her eyes and watched the children rush out. first the grade sevens and eights, unruly and wild and loud, and then all the younger students, still _loud_ , the grade sixes, fives, and fours, but more organized. Things didn't start getting havocked until the grade threes and younger filtered out. They buzzed like flies in the wrong time of year, screaming and picking up snow to form into balls. It was the wrong kind, too loose. It didn't stop them from _trying_. Juvia felt her lips curl and knew it was a smile.

The kindergartens came out last, the most orderly yet, in a single-file line. Their teacher and his aide handled them with efficiency, doling them out to waiting parents and guardians. Juvia hunted for Aria and found her not by her telltale hair, black like her father's, curly like her mothers, because it was tucked beneath a rainbow toque, but by the purple Sparkle My Little Pony backpack. Juvia's smile grew.

Aria was handed off to a person that wasn't Gray, a tall man with light hair. She recognized Lyon. He'd parted with his paramedic uniform. He took her hand and led her to a massive pickup truck. She watched him open the back door, take Aria's backpack, and lift her into a car seat. She said something; he laughed and handed back her bag. Then he closed her up, walked around the front of the truck, and got inside. They were gone. The busses followed. The noise. Only the wind whispered in Juvia's ear. Tire tracks were covered by falling snow. Another snowplough scraped on by. Juvia closed her eyes again and listened to it fade, and then the sound of tires crushing over snow-choked pavement.

She knew he waited before she opened her eyes. She _always_ knew when Gray was there. She pushed herself away from the school sign and focused on the big black Sierra idling in front of her. The windows had been hastily cleaned of snow; there was an ice chunk trapped beneath the windshield wiper. Juvia opened the door and got inside without him having to ask. Hot air blasted her face; it was such an abrupt change, it _hurt._

The radio was on, Barrie McGuire's _Eve of Destruction_ tuning quietly.

Gray sat facing forward. He hadn't shaved, likely since the last time she saw him. Like in his hair, his stubble was shot through with the odd bits of grey.

"What are you doing out here?"

"I wanted to see Aria."

He sucked in a noisy breath and squeezed the life out of his steering wheel. She remembered the feel of his hands on her body. They'd been gentler then. She reached for him. It didn't occur to her that he wouldn't let her take his hand. He hesitated, then released the steering wheel and allowed her to thread their fingers together. Afterward, he was wet cardboard, crumpling and folding into her, touching her cheek and pulling her in so he could rest his forehead against hers.

"You're a fucking mess."

She kissed him. It drove out the muted chills and the hollow feeling the last of _Tante_ Eileen's fentanyl left behind. It made her feel human. To be human was to hurt. Everything felt absolutely _raw_.

"I can't keep doing this."

"You came to me."

"Lyon was afraid you'd freeze out here."

"You could have called a cab."

"I didn't think you'd be able to tell them where to go." That was supposed to hurt her; it did, faintly. It was overshadowed by the fact that he was there, he'd left work to come pick her up. She felt a little bit guilty. Minutely.

Gray said, "You scare me, Juvia. You're going to end up dead."

She kissed him again. He was a little more giving this time, moving his lips just a small amount. It was like permission.

Juvia had felt numb but for this, she could be alive. Gray's hair was sticky with pomade, the skin beneath the collar of his jacket and shirt _hot_. He made a noise of protest when she touched the bare skin she could reach. The sound elongated when she used her tongue to open his mouth and kiss him properly. He started to gather her up, whether to warm her or to deepen the kiss or to strangle the life out of her, Juvia didn't _know,_ then something _clicked_ in his mind. She _felt_ it. And he pulled away. Not just pulled away, _pushed_ her away. Her back touched the door; his hands he took back for himself and pushed his hair back from his forehead. Again. Again. Again.

"Fuck." It was almost a yell. In a breath. Out a breath. "We have to stop. Stop this. It's not fucking healthy and it's not right."

"It's not?"

"No. It's not. We're _toxic,_ you and me. Together we just tear through everything, Juvia, and I can't." He was spinning out of control, getting louder and louder. He didn't scare Juvia as much as _Tante_ Eileen did. Or _Tante_ Kyouka.

_Tante?_ Or just _Kyouka_? She didn't _know._ She didn't _know_ anything. It was _maddening._ _Kyouka is mean._ And so was Eileen. She started to cry.

"Fuck," Gray swore again. Quieter, "I'm sorry, Juvia. I didn't mean to yell. I'm just… _frustrated."_

"It's not that." Gray looked at her questioningly and Juvia was candid. "I've had a really fucked up day."

He thawed a bit. "What happened?"

" _Tante_ Eileen was holding out on my drugs and then she gave them to me and then she was really, really mad." She sniffled.

"Because you took them?" He looked even more confused than Juvia felt. She shook her head.

"Because _Tante_ Kyouka got away."

"Kyouka? Kyouka is dead, Juvia."

Juvia didn't think about spilling _Tante_ Eileen's secret or what it would mean if Gray knew, she just _did._ Because she didn't trust _Tante_ Eileen and she didn't trust _Kyouka_. "She's not dead. She was at Somnium. In _Tante_ Eileen's basement. _Tante_ Eileen wanted her. She didn't like what she did to _Tante_ Erza."

"You're confused." He was gentle. "I saw the coroners report."

"I'm _not_ confused," Juvia said firmly. "I'm not. Kyouka is _alive_. She's escaped Somnium and now… I don't know where she'll go." Magnolia was a big city with a lot of shadowy corners for a woman like Kyouka to hide in. "She's mad, though. She'll be mad at me." With those words came realization. "She might try to hurt Aria to hurt me. What if—"

"Sh." He'd found his gentleness and put his hand against her mouth, silencing her. "Calm down."

Juvia wriggled out of his hold. "I _am_ calm." She was _not._

"Juvia." When gentleness wouldn't work, he used sharpness and cut through her mounting panic. "Aria's safe."

"But Kyouka—"

He didn't believe her, that was _obvious_ , Kyouka _had_ been transported to the morgue, after all, she _had_ been pronounced _dead_. Gray entertained her, though, and with facts. "I always have people watching Aria. She's safe." Watching her because his job was dangerous and his ex was tangled up in all the things she _shouldn't_ be. There was _truth_ to his methods of placation.

Still.

"You'll watch for her? For Kyouka?"

He searched her eyes. "Yeah. Yeah, I will."

"Promise?"

"Yes. Of course. Aria's my daughter, too."

Of course she was. And he had the means Juvia didn't to keep her safe.

"Good?"

Juvia barely lifted her shoulder in a weak, noncommittal shrug. "I guess."

Gray leaned back against his seat and heaved a massive sigh. He suddenly looked very, very tired. "You make me crazy."

"I know." Juvia's phone buzzed in her lap. Lifting it, she saw a text from _Tante_ Erza saying simply, _Come home._

"What is it?" Gray asked.

Juvia considered ignoring the text. Where would she go, though? She didn't think Gray would take her back home again. That wasn't a good place for her, anyway. Not as she was currently. Shoals? She didn't think _Tante_ Eileen would allow for it. Somnium was where she needed to be.

"I have to go back to Somnium."

Gray stopped her from getting out of the truck, grabbing her hand. "You're freezing. I'll drive you."

Juvia settled back in her seat again. Gray pulled her closer and looked equal parts satisfied and disgusted with himself when she rested her head on his shoulder. The truck rolled forward through the parking lot; snow gathered on its windshield. The radio started playing her favourite song, White Rabbit. She hummed along with it; what else could she do?

The truck moved slowly through the storm. Juvia made every second pay and focused her attention on Gray. His coat was opened and beneath, his tie was askew. Was it work or a woman that left him like that? Could be, it was both. She looked up at his stubble.

"Are you growing a beard?"

"No."

"Just haven't shaved?"

"Not much time."

A woman then, Juvia concluded. She turned to drugs when things got messy, Gray turned to pussy. They'd worked together for some time but like he said, it was a toxic combination.

"Do you ever think we'll be better?"

His arm tightened around her shoulders. "I hope so."

Sometimes, the only thing life gave you was hope. What you did with it was your own prerogative, it stepped back and let the gardens grow as they may.

Somnium's lot came up fast. It was empty once again, the detectives were gone. Gray took his arm away from Juvia and put the truck in park. She waited for him to turn off the motor and to come inside. He wouldn't, he was made of harder stuff than that. She was not, malleable and soft and like water bare of all its nutrients, she took without regard, stripping everything of every metaphorical mineral she could, uncaring if she left those around her sick afterwards.

Juvia kissed him again. He responded properly this time, deepening it all on his own, opening his mouth and kissing her thoroughly in that _way_ he had, the one that set her on fire and made her feel alive. His hand on her ribs forced her to bow into him and his hand in her hair held her still. Juvia let herself get carried away. It was worth the fallout afterwards when he reached behind her and opened the door—it seemed he needed to have that _first,_ that means for her to escape before he could stop kissing her. Juvia didn't put up much of a fight, sliding out of his truck and into the parking lot.

Gray started pulling away before she'd even rightly closed the door. Somnium opened and prevented her from staring too much. _Tante_ Erza was there. "Come."

Juvia went to her. To not was impossible. The door closed. In the doorway of the empty bar, _Tante_ Erza stripped Juvia of her coat and helped her out of her boots and then took her hand and led her through Somnium and up the stairs. She'd never been in the Rose Room before, where _Tante_ Erza spent her time. The bed was made with black sheets; the walls were red.

_Tante_ Erza closed the door, cutting out the rest of Somnium, then faced Juvia again. Her hands were smoother than Gray's on Juvia's cheeks, and less hesitant moving through her hair and onto her shoulders. She smelled sweeter, too.

"Are you alright?"

"Scared, _Tante_."

"My mother won't hurt you."

"No disrespect, but _Tante_ Eileen does as she likes."

"If you're mine, she won't hurt you," Erza said with more authority. "Will you be mine?"

She wasn't talking _just_ about being a lover. It was something more. The magnitude of which made Juvia hesitate.

"You'll be safe. One day, you might even be happy."

"How can you promise me that? _Tante_ Eileen thinks _I_ released Kyouka."

"Not anymore. There was a razor left on the floor," _Tante_ Erza said. "My mother thinks that's how Kyouka escaped. She wanted me to extend her apology."

Juvia remembered that razor well.

Fingers brushed over Juvia's cheeks, clearing them of any dampness. "I'll ask again. Will you be mine?"

"Yes, _Tante_."

_Tante_ Erza smiled then. It _did_ reach her eyes, genuine. She was Somnium's rosebud salve, healing all manner of itches and chaps and wounds with a kiss and a touch. She undid the back of Juvia's dress slowly, inch by inch, and when the material was a puddle on the floor, she took Juvia to her bed, rolled down the sheets, and invited her inside.

_Tante_ Erza did not linger where Juvia's ribs poked out too bluntly, nor did she stop to make Juvia beg, she did not act as Gray had, hesitant and uncertain and in pain when Juvia kissed her. She used every trick she learned as an escort. It was wrong to make a _Tante_ work so hard, Juvia wanted their positions to be reversed, but she needed this. She needed the attention. The safety _Tante_ Erza could offer.

Eventually, a red-nosed and bloodshot-eyed Mira joined and in all the tumult, the hands and the mouths and the sighs and the cries, Juvia found a kind of peace, and with peace, afterwards, came sleep.

Her favourite poet once told her nothing gold could stay. He was right. Eventually, Juvia woke. She felt better, rested like she hadn't been in a long, long time. She was alone, though. Her dress was gone. _Tante_ Erza left her a robe, black. Always black for _Tante_ Erza. Juvia slid into it and exited into the hallway.

Somnium was open for the night, the stage was full of a girl Juvia didn't recognize. She was supposed to be down there. Her stomach twisted with worry. Back to her own room she rushed, where she lifted her hair high off her neck, did her makeup as best she could to hide the hollows beneath her eyes and the pallor of her skin, and then slid into a dress she thought _Tante_ Erza would approve of. Black again, short and small.

She thought that would be all but on her way back out, a small piece of paper caught her eye, sitting on her pillow. She felt hollow going to it, picking it up. But she did.

The only things on it were letters, and those letters spelled a name, _Huntsman,_ and a time, _five-thirty._ And a date. Tomorrow.

She set it on fire with a match she kept by her candles before she left her room, and left the ashes on her dresser.


	8. Chapter 8

 

_**VIII: Natsu ** _

There were a lot of things Natsu could endure—for a while at least. Like living and loving the brother that betrayed him. It was a delicate balance, what with planning Zeref's downfall and eventual death while he drank coffee with him each morning in their shared kitchen. The further away he got from the betrayal, the easier it was to pretend that it hadn't existed.

When things got rough and Natsu's constitution wavered, he thought of how _Tante_ Eileen and Zeref bribed Lisanna to confess to a murder she hadn't committed. He thought of how they went behind his back and lied. He thought of how they would pay. Acnologia would be the knife Natsu wielded that would cut through them both. And then Natsu would pick up the pieces.

Given those impossible tasks that he _seemed_ to be navigating adeptly enough, he thought he could handle what was in front of him now. A little bit of gritting his teeth, a little bit of whisky, a little bit of coke burning his nose and sliding down the back of his throat and he could stand in the bathroom with his shirt sleeve rolled up past his elbow and five different squares on his arm, used typically for the treatment of _mild burns._ The skin beneath the saturated cotton was angry and red and bubbling. One of his Molotov cocktails had been shot out of his hand and the accelerator had exploded over his arm.

It was probably the worst pain he ever felt and yet, it was a small price to pay, really. Besides, he was able to part with his coat before things got really bad. Killed _Tante_ Eileen's guards and then he finished his job. Elmer Drive was a pile of ash and now Quinn Street was, too. There was just a little bit of glass he had to meticulously pick out of his flesh and that burn would scar. He'd pay again if he had to.

Natsu picked one of the cotton squares up and the pain that followed was the teeth-aching kind. He decided to leave it where it was and bandaged overtop of it, wrapping slowly and loosely. He felt the heat radiating, which made it hurt worse, and wasn't sure which way to go from there. To leave it open was to invite infection, wasn't it?

The door was knocked upon.

"Yeah."

"Alright?" That was Zeref.

"Fine." Natsu turned on the water and while he watched blood and glass float down the drain, he unrolled his sleeve and did up the buttons on the wrist. The bandage couldn't be seen and the loose dress shirt hid his arm from looking puffy. That was good enough for him. Any garbage he had went into the bin beside the toilet. Everything else went back into the first aid kit beneath the sink. Finished, he opened the bathroom door. Zeref was still there, waiting patiently with his back against the wall.

"We have three other bathrooms."

"Yeah, but you were in this one," Zeref said.

"Exactly."

"Exactly. I wanted to talk to you."

Natsu started down a cream-coloured hallway decorated with the odd family portrait to the kitchen. "About?"

"The Spider's buildings are burning to the ground," Zeref said. "Distribution houses."

"Huh."

"Jacob said it's guy in a mask with Molotov cocktails."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Well, no. I think the exact words he used was _bozo with a death wish_."

"That's an unfair assumption."

Zeref put himself up on a stool at the kitchen island and watched Natsu go through the fridge. "You're right. I told him it was probably some asshole with a runny nose and a bone to pick."

"Another assumption." Natsu pulled out a jug of water with his good hand.

Zeref slid a glass over the counter for him but held it with his hand over the wide mouth. "Maybe you could help clear that up for me, then?"

"What do you want me to say?" Drugs made meeting Zeref's eye easier.

"I want you to tell me if it was you."

"Do you think I'm stupid?"

"To tell me or to act against Eileen?" Zeref wheedled.

Natsu was suddenly grateful for the evenings he spent sitting on the edge of his bed, staring into the wall-mounted mirror, delivering believable lies. He hammered his expression into a shape that was something like disbelief, concern and disinterest. "I don't have secrets from you. We're family."

When Zeref chewed his cheek, his cheekbone became very, very sharp. "We are family, Natsu, we're all each other has. Which is why I'm asking. She'll retaliate and she'll retaliate hard and I can't protect you if I don't know I need to be. I'm worried about you."

Natsu took his glass from his brother's hand and poured his water. "I had nothing to do with it."

It was hard to say if Zeref believed him or not, he was always hard to read. He said, "Alright," though, and changed the subject. "Have you turned on the news yet today? The asylum's short two of their girls and a staff member."

Natsu's heart skipped a beat. He wasn't fast enough or good enough to act completely surprised, he _tried,_ though. "Which two girls?"

"Cut the fucking bullshit," Zeref said sharply. "I don't know how you got her out, Natsu, and I don't want to know, but she's not coming here and you're not coming home with your throat slit, either."

Natsu knew better than to argue the plausibility of something like that happening, Zeref didn't look to be in the mood to tango with details. He took a gulp of his water to buy himself some time but he _still_ had nothing to add to the conversation. All he could say was, "Stay away from her."

"Or what?" Zeref tested. "Will you kill your only family? Then what? You and Lisanna move in here and have a happily ever after until she wakes up one night in a fit and shoots you?"

"At least it wouldn't be a surprise," Natsu said. "I'd see that hit coming." He left his water where it was and headed for the door. Zeref grabbed his bicep and was promptly shoved back into his seat, hold immediately broken. Natsu grabbed his collar before he could think much about it. It had been a long time since he'd hit his brother but he was in the mood to try it again. It was the coke. It made him more violent than usual. "Don't," Natsu threatened.

Zeref was back to chewing his cheek. "Lay off the powder."

Natsu shoved him back and made his exit without a reply. His coat was where he left it. He ignored the driver waiting at the front door and grabbed the keys for his Chevelle, going left through a dark wooden door and exiting into a tall, multi-storey garage. Up high were the classic cars that never got driven, like the green 1953 Jaguar C-Type or the fire red 1937 Buick Century. More _things_. Natsu had an impulse to wreck all the pretty, gleaming metal. He watered it down. And down. He wasn't a child any longer, he didn't get to have temper tantrums when Zeref was mean.

His SS was sitting where it always was, in front of the roll-up door. He hit a button on his key fob and metal chains chugged and daylight spilled in through the bottom of the corrugated door. It had stopped snowing at least.

The car started up with a roar that was comforting and rolled out of the garage at a speed that made the backend fishtail. He swung into the road without much care of traffic, head elsewhere, and heard a horn blare. Natsu jammed his foot down on the gas and watched bits of snow fly up over his hood. He got one of his burner phones out of his pocket and called _Tante_ Eileen. She answered on the fourth ring and sounded angry.

"What is it?"

"Where is she?"

_Tante_ Eileen was quiet for a moment, then, when she spoke again, she sounded more in control. "Exactly where we discussed."

"The storehouse? On Watcher Avenue?"

"Yes."

"I'll send Black Dragon your way soon. Thank you, _Tante_."

_Tante_ Eileen hung up. Natsu threw his phone in the passenger's seat and put both hands on the wheel. He needed to, the roads were still mostly unploughed.

The drive from home into town wasn't bad, five minutes. Half an hour's walk. It took him longer to get through the spider's web of streets, dodging pedestrians and other vehicles, rolling through yellows when he could, and checking his rear view mirror every few seconds to make sure he wasn't followed. None of the cars behind him remained the same so he was reasonably confident that Zeref didn't send a tail on him.

Watcher Avenue was a road pockmarked by heavy transport traffic ducking in to pick up supplies from the factories and warehouses that choked either side of the road. _Tante_ Eileen owned only one of the buildings that jutted out of the ground like great, grey and broken teeth, and then it was through such a convoluted line of ownership, purchased through subsidiaries and affiliates that you had to want to know very, very badly if it was in her name.

She used to send fentanyl through here to drug companies but the building needed upgrades she wasn't willing to give to it so she'd purchased another on the other side of town, this one cleaner and more legitimate, under the name of a drug company she'd bought stocks in when it was in its infancy. It was where most of her supply came from. The building on Watcher Avenue she kept for the sole purpose of hiding things she didn't want to be found.

Natsu parked his car three blocks away and pulled a baseball cap on his head and his hood up, just in case. Before leaving the safety of his car, he made sure nothing of any value was left out and that all of the doors were locked. This part of Magnolia had been known to attract thieves. His keys went into the pocket of his jeans, then Natsu tugged down the hem of his leather jacket and got to walking. Most of the sidewalks weren't ploughed. He had snow in his Redwing boots in no time. The leather was going to be watermarked. It had been a long time since he cared about stuff like that.

Natsu jogged across slick streets and waved at cars that hadn't _really_ given him the right of way, earning himself some honks and a few choice words. He didn't care about _that,_ either.

Narrow and dirty, _Tante_ Eileen's building was nestled between two larger ones. To the left was a pencil factory and to the right was a battery distribution place. Natsu took the shoveled path beside the battery place and opened the fence between the two buildings. He felt better once it was closed behind him, blocking him from view from anyone spotting foot traffic in the area. Many of Magnolia's matriarchs and patriarchs paid good money for eyes; they were children, mostly, boys and girls that were good at sliding into shadowy corners and listening with young ears to parrot back to their beneficiaries. They were rarely spotted unless you knew what you were looking for. Natsu knew and made good use of the time he'd spent cleaning up his brother's messes and surveyed the area before he went any further.

The parking lot behind the buildings was empty save for overflowing dumpsters. He checked high, too, for any faces pressed against the glass in the buildings opposite the Spider's. The coast looked clear so he proceeded with caution.

The key that unlocked the industrial door on Watcher Avenue was large, brass, and old. It fit in Natsu's hand, cold because it has spent the majority of its time in Natsu's possession in the glovebox of his Chevelle. It was the one place he didn't think Zeref would look.

The door opened with a croak and a gasp of dry air. It knocked against the wall before swinging back again, just as noisily. In closing it, Natsu cut off the sound of wind and traffic. Above his head, a portable heater was mounted on the wall blasting hot air down on ancient concrete floors. The ceiling stretched on high above that where fluorescent tube lights swung gently with the increase in airflow, chains tinkering quietly. More than a few lights were burned out; some flicked on and off in a way that was seizure-inducing.

Natsu held his breath and looked around the room. There were crates stacked up against the eastern wall. And the floor was tidy. Curious, he crossed the room to the nearest crate and lifted its lid. Inside wasn't anything he recognized, though if he had to put a name to it, he'd call it medical equipment. _Tante_ Eileen had her paws in a lot of cookie jars. It would help her remain relevant, anyway.

Scuffing of a heel over concrete drew his attention to the back of the room. Lisanna lounged there against the wall looking like a plucked dandelion gone to seed, her hair was puffy and messy, her eyes slightly bruised. Her mouth, though, tilted up in her familiar smile and any doubts Natsu had about his course of action evaporated just like that.

He crossed the room to her and she folded into him, arms locking around his neck, body tight against his, and it was like no time had passed. She had even gotten new clothes like Tante Eileen had promised she would, a sweater that fell to her thighs and a pair of tights. On her feet were tall leather boots that came up to her knees.

"You came."

"'Course I did," Natsu replied.

"Kagura said you might not."

"Why would she say that?"

"Because men lie." Natsu didn't see Kagura until she spoke, she'd blended in so well with the shadows over Lisanna's shoulder. "I didn't want her to be disappointed."

"You lie, too, Kagura," Lisanna said. "You told me you weren't going to spy on Natsu and me."

Kagura slinked, there was no other way to describe her movements as she came to Lisanna's side and planted a transient kiss on her cheek. She moved past Natsu with the same grace she'd approached with. He caught her hand brushing against his hip for his gun and pushed her away. The expression she wore couldn't be called a smile, it was too flat for that. There was amusement in her eyes, though, and Natsu couldn't help but think he'd passed some kind of test. She swayed on, down the hallway behind Lisanna and into a door where a male's voice greeted her.

"Is that _Tante_ Eileen's man?" Natsu asked.

"His name is Freed," Lisanna said.

One of the orderlies from the asylum, Natsu knew. "How is he?"

She shrugged. "Shy. But nice, I guess. He says _Tante_ Eileen is setting up a house for us so we won't have to stay here."

Yeah, at Natsu's behest. He didn't want anything to do with it, he just took out the cash, gave it over to her, and watched her work. Zeref wouldn't be able to trace it back to him that way. "A house for you and me."

Lisanna looked up at him from beneath her lashes. "You're going to come live with us, too?"

Natsu said carefully, "You and me, Lisanna. _We're_ going to live together."

She might have been a little bit crazy but she wasn't slow. "Not Kagura?"

Natsu tread carefully here, sensing dangerous waters just ahead. "Do you want Kagura to come stay with us?"

"Kagura likes being with me. She says I make her happy. And I think she's fun."

What else could he say? "We'll talk about it."

She didn't look necessarily placated but Natsu touched her chin and brought her in for a kiss. In just a moment, she'd forgotten, satisfied to unzip his coat and worm her way inside. Her hands were cold slipping beneath his shirt. She skated her fingers over his chest and back down again and then grabbed him between the legs firmly enough that Natsu didn't know whether or not it hurt or felt good.

"Are you here for long?"

"I have an hour." An hour before he had to take the next step in his coercion and visit Black Dragon. He filled his hands with Lisanna's breasts. By the feel of it, she still wore the asylum's underwear. Lisanna's mouth curved against his.

"That's enough time to fuck me." She always said ugly things, quietly in his ear so they ended up being sensual. "This way." She pulled away from him and flounced down the same hallway Kagura had. She stripped herself of her clothes as she went, first the sweater, then the tank top beneath it, both getting dropped to the ground like rags though it was _cold_ in this part of the building. The plain cotton bra she wore got the same treatment, her fingers moving deftly behind her back to unhook the clasps. She hid her breasts with her hands and glanced back over her shoulder and the expression she wore was teasing.

"Hurry."

Natsu detached from his position and followed on her heels. He didn't _want_ to look anywhere else but at her but he glanced into the room where Kagura had disappeared and found her sitting on an old creaky computer chair spinning slowly. There was a cigarette in her hand, unlit. She smiled; it was unkind. Natsu moved beyond being able to see her. Lisanna snagged his attention again, slipping into a room on the right.

Natsu came around the corner seconds behind her and found Lisanna standing beside a mattress on the floor, pants already down around her ankles. Natsu kicked the door closed and wrapped his arms around her, holding her in place while he kissed her shoulders and her back and her neck and her cheek.

"On the mattress," she commanded when he tried to take it further.

Where had that thing come from? It didn't smell dirty, exactly, Natsu decided upon sitting. It didn't smell _clean_. Dusty. It had been there for some time. There was Lisanna's faint smell in the sheets, though, and another's that could have only been Kagura. He didn't _want_ to know whose cologne that was.

It didn't really matter.

Lisanna lowered herself down next to Natsu and finally took her hands away from her breasts so she could rest her palms against his face. There were no fresh marks on her skin, no nail crescents, no bruises new since the last time he'd seen her. Natsu felt something foreign in his chest. _Hope,_ his mind suggested. That feeling was hope. Could be, freedom was good for Lisanna. Hell. Maybe Kagura was good for her, too, who was he to say? He wasn't a shrink; he was just the guy that loved her.

She kissed him again. Lips that had been chapped were wet now and warm despite the cool air in the building. She pushed him back and he lay down on the mystery mattress. Lisanna left his mouth and tipped her face up; Natsu followed her gaze. The door was open and Kagura waited, watching.

Natsu didn't immediately say _no_ so Lisanna took that as permission and sat up straight and turned around, putting her legs on either side of his face; he could feel her knees digging into his shoulders. That went on the list of things he didn't care much about. He kissed between her legs and Lisanna shivered. He licked and she sighed. That sigh turned into a moan, long and dark and sensual as he did it just the way she liked.

Cold air brushed over Natsu's middle; Lisanna unzipped his jacket and pulled his shirt up a couple of inches. The cold air moved against his groin, too. Her fingers were so skilled undoing his pants and taking him out.

Natsu was torn between feeling Lisanna's kiss on the tip of his cock and listening to Kagura's boots clop over the floor. An errant thought crossed his mind: was she going to kill them? The thrill that moved through him was _irrational,_ Natsu knew that. Undeniable, though. Maybe he needed something crazy; maybe he couldn't _not_ have it. Or maybe he'd spent too much time with Lisanna, slogging through her mire.

No knife slipped between his ribs, nothing bludgeoned him, no gunshot went off.

Natsu could just barely see Kagura from his spot between Lisanna's thighs, and only when she crouched down in front of Lisanna and knotted her fingers in Lisanna's already messy hair. Her other hand gripped Natsu's thigh hard enough to leave a bruise, and then she pushed Lisanna down, never _too_ far, it seemed she knew Lisanna's limits, but as far as she could comfortably take him, slow and steady. Natsu had had Lisanna like this a hundred times; this felt _different_ , though. Better. It wasn't just Lisanna's moaning, it was Kagura's control of her. Lisanna's enjoyment.

Lisanna came. Natsu kept her where she was by wrapping his arms around her hips until she came again. Only then did he let her sit up and climb down to Kagura's waiting kiss. He didn't think he'd like watching them so much. He was wrong. Like she felt his eyes on her, Kagura met his gaze and held it. There was a bit of challenge there. There wasn't anything Natsu liked more than a challenge.

Lisanna adjusted and took him inside and everything else, except for the rise and fall of Lisanna's body and Kagura crouching in front of Lisanna's spread legs, bled into the background. He couldn't feel what Lisanna did when Kagura kissed her, he could feel Kagura's hot breath, though, hitting the base of his cock and lower.

Lisanna's cries got louder. Natsu gripped her hips and thrust into her faster and wished he could see her face. Watching her fingers lace behind her head and pull her hair was almost good enough. He quite liked the goosebumps that shot over her skin, too.

Her orgasm took her all at once, violent and loud, and brought Natsu along, too. Seconds of immobility passed, then Lisanna went limp and fell back, expecting Natsu to catch her; of course, he did and settled her down on his chest where he held her loosely. That faint feeling of hope was back; Lisanna hadn't even tried to hurt herself. Or anyone else.

Kagura stood and wiped her mouth on the back of her hand and left the way she came without a word. Lisanna let it lay, so Natsu did, too. "Were you told when you're leaving?"

"Tomorrow night, I think," Lisanna said. "You'll come see me?"

"For sure."

"And Mira?" She looked at Natsu hopefully and quashed his rising argument when she said, "I miss Mira."

"I'll talk to her."

She beamed. "You know where to find me after we move?"

"Yeah." Natsu put a kiss on Lisanna's temple and nose and lips, then started the arduous task of separating from her. "I have to get going. You have my number in case you need something?"

"Yes."

"But only if it's an emergency, right?"

"Yes." Lisanna stretched out, naked and serene. "Tell me you love me."

Natsu finished fixing his pants and dropped to his knees once more so he could kiss her. "I love you." More than he ever had, perhaps.

* * *

Somnium looked solemn, a few of its fluorescent lights on in the window: the dreaming tree, for which it was named, the entertainment light spouting _Live Shows_ , and the light above that, the largest of all, boasting the bordello. Magnolia's best. Better than the Black Glove and Daisy's and the Barrel. That was no lie. Tante Eileen's girls _were_ the best.

Natsu stepped inside the smoky establishment. It was bustling, as it usually was this time of night. People ignored him for the most part as he made his way to the bar. Some, who thought they were in the know about the Belserion-Dragneel rivalry, looked at him for a little longer than what Natsu was strictly comfortable with. Zeref would hear about this, he was sure, if he hadn't already.

The bar was being worked by a girl he didn't recognize—it had been a long time since he'd come to Somnium during business hours. She knew him, though, and had a double shot of vodka with a pickle ready to go for him before he ever got the chance to order.

"Thanks," Natsu told her and pulled up an empty barstool.

"Enjoy, Mister Dragneel." She glided away.

Natsu figured it was only a matter of time before he was approached. He took a huge swallow of the vodka and a bite of pickle to cut the flavour and was lifting his glass to kill the rest when his name was uttered in a voice trained to be erotic.

"Mister Dragneel."

To look sideways was to be hit with a wall of red. " _Tante_."

Whatever it was that _Tante_ Eileen had that made men feel small, _Tante_ Erza possessed it, too. She used red as a weapon, leaning against the bar in her red dress and straightening Natsu's collar with her red painted fingernails. She leaned in to put her red matted lips to his ear and her frighteningly red hair slid over her shoulder and tickled where it touched Natsu's hands. "Are you here for business or pleasure?"

"Pleasure."

She pulled back and smiled slowly. "It's been a long time since we've had a Dragneel in Somnium's beds. Would you like me to call the girls down?"

"I know which one I want. If she's available." Avoiding the lineup where the girls didn't preen or sway to unfairly catch his attention was ideal. That was the most embarrassing part of visiting a bordello when he was young and inexperienced. The girls never laughed but he felt their eyes and imagined what they were thinking.

_Tante_ Erza's smile never went away. "I'm not sure she wants to see you."

"Ask her? Please," he added.

Tante Erza reached behind the bar for the phone and spun in the extension for Mira's room. "Natsu is here to see you." She looked him over while Mira chirped on the other end of the line. "I'll have him pay before he comes up and I'll leave Gildarts on your door."

"I never used to have to pay upfront," Natsu said when the phone was back in its cradle.

"You never used to have a guard, either. Things are different now."

"And the price?"

_Tante_ Erza took Natsu's hand and made him vertical. Her voice may have been sensual but her fingers slipped inside his coat and rested on his favourite revolver with efficiency. "Should I collect for danger pay?"

Natsu took his gun out and put it down on the counter. It attracted some attention, though guns weren't an oddity amongst Somnium's clientele. "Not anymore."

"Then your rate remains the same. Put this away for Mister Dragneel, please," _Tante_ Eileen asked the bartender.

"I want it back," Natsu made sure to tell her when the girl took it from the counter. "It's my favourite."

"We've never cheated you before," _Tante_ Erza replied. Natsu hid his opinion behind the final gulp of vodka. With his throat burning pleasantly, he took out his wallet and counted out the price of Somnium's girls. This bordello was a little more expensive than the others, it was worth it, though. _Tante_ Erza took the money and waved him up the wooden stairs. He gripped the handrail because he felt like he had to, the room was swaying slightly.

Juvia rounded the corner and started rushing down the stairs. Natsu caught her to keep her from falling. She smiled at him fleetingly and pulled out of his grasp. That was a surprise. He half-expected her to bug him for a bump. She was focused, though, on _Tante_ Erza down below.

Mira's door opened and she leaned against the doorframe in a lacy black and purple corset with buckles on the side and a short frilly skirt. Her hair cascaded over her shoulder, curls drooping expertly. He didn't want to know how long she spent fixing her hair just so, only to have it gripped and pulled and tousled by customers.

The expression she wore, so like Lisanna's, was supposed to be sultry, yet, there was a wariness to her. "Hi, Natsu."

Natsu looked her over as he _always_ did, unable to help himself. It wasn't _really_ Mira he was seeing, it never was. She let him look, even pulled her hair back from her shoulder for him, even reached for his hand. Natsu stepped into her room. Mira closed the door and leaned against it. Her chest was rising and falling too quickly, though she made a good play at being calm. He wouldn't have noticed if her breasts weren't piled so high, verily heaving.

Mira went to the mini bar while Natsu sat on the soft mattress and watched her get out two shot glasses. The last time he'd seen her, they'd been at her apartment. The bed had been smaller, creakier, the lights had been dimmer. His head had been less tangled. The path back then had seemed clear, back when he thought, for a moment, that Mira was almost as good as Lisanna. That night had kick-started a vicious swirl of self-loathing he'd rather leave behind but couldn't seem to bear to. It had been nice, hadn't it, pretending?

He knew the difference between reality and fantasy, though.

Well enough.

Natsu gave himself another moment to pretend, in which Mira returned to the bed, two drinks in hand. Vodka again. She gave the one glass to Natsu and swigged back the other. She barely flinched, just let her knees give out from under her and dropped between his legs. The shot glass was left on the floor so she could grip his legs through his pants, sliding up and up. Her expression was carefully pretty and blank.

Her hands were between his thighs when Natsu brought himself to ask, "Is this room secure?"

Mira lifted her eyes. "Secure?"

"Does _Tante_ Eileen spy on you?"

Her progress up the inside of his leg stopped. "That's a strange question to ask."

"Does that mean yes?"

Mira's muscles were rigid. "They're safe."

"That's not really what I asked."

Mira immediately went on the defensive. "If your brother sent you, Gildarts is outside. Maybe you'd kill me but you'd never leave here alive."

"I'm not here to kill you," Natsu told her quietly. "I wanted to _talk_. About Lisanna. Is it secure or _not_?"

Mira searched his eyes as if she could see into his soul. Eventually, she said, "Secure enough. If you speak quietly."

"She misses you."

Mira narrowed her eyes. "And how would you know that?"

He couldn't think of a tactful way to explain how he'd worked with Mira's matron to bust her sister out of the asylum. He didn't need to. Mira figured it out on her own. At least, for the most part. Natsu's cheek was stinging before he registered her movement. The sound reverberated off the wall.

"It was you. You sonofabitch. What were you _thinking_?" She wasn't speaking silently anymore. "You can't just—"

Natsu pressed his finger to her lips. " _Sh_. Keep your voice down." He could hear Gildarts outside the room. Could practically _feel_ his eyes on him through the peephole in the door.

Mira looked too furious for that. She slapped his hand aside and pushed Natsu back and that was when the door opened. Gildarts made an impressive figure filling up the doorway wearing his best glower. "Is there a problem?"

Natsu waited for Mira to spin around and tell Gildarts _yes,_ and for the pain that came afterwards. He'd seen more than one unlucky bastard removed from Somnium by Gildarts' hand. Mira turned. And _smiled_ and the effect was wholly unsettling. It was like she'd slipped into someone else's skin to tell Gildarts, "No problem. We were just roleplaying."

"Roleplaying." It didn't matter _how_ good of an actress she was, Gildarts didn't believe her.

"Yes."

Gildarts shook his head. "Get up, Natsu, and get out."

"Gildarts," Mira protested. "He's already paid and—"

"It's fine, Mira. Things were getting a little intense anyway," Natsu said quickly and stood. It was obvious he was leaving Somnium one way or another; it was better for it to be of his own volition.

Gildarts closed the door behind Natsu and took him by the arm, just above the burn, and pulled him against the bannister. He leaned in and rasped under his breath, "You're fucking stupid coming here."

"I wasn't banned from Somnium," Natsu said.

"You might as well have been. _Tante_ Eileen told you to keep your business deal discrete and here you are, walking around like a fucking cock. You know what she's going to do to you if she finds out you're spitting secrets in Mira's ear?"

Natsu lied. "Mira doesn't know anything."

Gildarts tightened his hold on Natsu's arm. "You better hope that's the truth, kid. _Tante_ Eileen's not in a very forgiving mood. She's going to be pissed just knowing that you were here. When I tell her you were seeing Mira…"

"She knows I like her." Too well. It seemed _Tante_ Eileen was always lording that over him every time he showed, dangling that carrot in front of his nose. Lisanna 2.0. Less crazy. More functional. The kind of girl he _could_ bring home if his brother wouldn't shoot her in the head.

Gildarts softened fractionally. "Get out while you can."

Natsu took his advice; he still had a dragon to meet.


	9. Chapter 9

**_ IX: Laxus _ **

There was a burger cooling in Laxus' hands and a hard window under his head but somehow, his eyes were still drifting closed and his breathing was still mellowing out.

Jellal was a bastard, speaking and waking him up again. "I think you get most of your pay asleep."

"Mmhm. I'm thinking."

"Dreaming."

"Thinking. It's not the same thing."

"What are you dreaming about?"

Laxus cracked his eye and saw his partner looking too jovial by half in the driver's seat, considering. "How anyone ever puts up with you. I should ask the Captain for accommodation."

"Good luck with that." Jellal put his head in his phone and typed something.

"What're you doing?"

"Asking Wendy to let out Beau."

Laxus groaned.

"What?"

"I lied. I was dreaming. I'm bagged. Cooked. Overdone. The techs didn't find anything in Somnium, questioning those girls didn't lead anywhere. We've got no threads to chase. Don't you think we should call it a night? You can go let out your own dog and I'll go take care of Gramps before I have to arrest Porlyusica for murder?"

Jellal took in a deep breath. "I have a bad feeling about this one. I think we should keep working it."

Laxus had opinions about Jellal's bad feelings. "Great."

"Yeah." He bounced his leg, making his burger wrapper flutter. Bits of lettuce fell to the ground.

"Seriously," Laxus griped. "This is a shared space."

Jellal looked at him blankly.

"Your lettuce," Laxus spelled it out.

"What about it?"

He was actually too tired. "You know what, never mind. The next time this thing gets cleaned, though, that's on you."

"It's always on me."

"Because you're always making a mess." It felt good to get that jab in and because he was petty, he changed the subject completely, not giving his partner the opportunity to get one in on his own. "How did you plan on going forward with this?" Because he honestly had no idea.

"I'd like to canvass Somnium, get a feel for her clientele, watch for our poisoner," Jellal said. "Figure out how they're poisoning these men and bust her for it."

"You're sure it's a woman, huh?" Laxus prodded.

Jellal shrugged. "Meredy's profile suggests so but who knows, I've been surprised before."

Laxus took a bite of his burger. It wasn't just cooling, it was cold. He picked at the lettuce. "I love Somnium as much as the next guy but that sounds like a long night of dog fucking."

"Yeah. But we have no other leads, right?"

"Right," Laxus said.

"So, we go back to the Spider's nest."

"Did you not believe me when I said she's going to kill us one day?"

"Maybe it'll even be today," Jellal said with a smile.

"You know, that's not funny and I resent you thinking that it is."

"She probably won't kill us."

Laxus asked around another bite, "Do you hear yourself? Probably won't kill us? Like you've made your life on probablys."

"What's so wrong with that? I thought you were _probably_ going to be an okay partner and didn't fight Captain Milkovich for putting us together."

Laxus snorted. "You were a fucking pariah joining the MPD. No one wanted to be your partner, don't play like you were head boy."

"If I recall correctly, you weren't exactly on everyone's favourite list either, Dreyar," Jellal said back as he put the car in drive. "You were the grandson of the Captain and the son of infamous Ivan Dreyar. Everyone thought you got your position through nepotism."

"And you actually did." Not many people talked aloud about how Commissioner Gryder handed out Jellal's position on the behest of his old Matriarch, back when he used to be the Prayer's eyes on the streets, but Laxus had heard it once or twice in whispered conversation.

"We both sucked," Jellal said.

Laxus had to tone back his petty ' _You were worse'_ remark, recognizing that he was tired-cranky. Jellal turned down Laxus' street and Laxus asked, "Where are you going?"

"We're not going to Somnium dressed like cops," Jellal said. "Everyone will know and no one will act out."

"Hate to break it to you, but everyone already knows our faces." The Cardinal thing had been huge.

"Guess we'll have to do our best to blend in then."

* * *

The trick to Somnium was to look nice like you had money you could spend, but casual like you weren't in a rush to spend it. Laxus wasn't confident he pulled the look off. His jeans were the nicest he owned, dark blue and too expensive but bought because Mira said his ass looked nice in them, and a shiny button-down shirt that Jellal raised his eyebrows at when Laxus exited his house and dropped into the Charger Jellal had traded the Tahoe for before returning home to change himself.

"What?"

"Nothing."

The way Jellal smiled made it seem like _something_. Laxus decided that he didn't fucking care. "Just drive."

"Sure thing." Jellal turned on the radio before exiting the driveway and hummed along to some modern rock song Laxus hated. "You left your badge behind?"

"Yeah."

"And your gun?"

"Not a chance," Laxus said in a challenging way.

Jellal surprised Laxus by saying, "That's what I was thinking, too."

Laxus didn't like it when Jellal wanted to have his gun.

Somnium came out of the dark, fluorescent and alive, the parking lot full to bursting despite the recent rash of murders on her doorstep.

"Nothing curbs the people in this town, huh?"

"They love to love and their drugs," Jellal said.

"My partner the poet," earned Laxus a limp smile.

Jellal put the Charger in one of the only available spots near the back of the lot and Laxus said, "Here's to not getting shot this time."

"Here, here."

Laxus followed his partner out of the car and kept his eyes on the parking lot. There were a few people outside, some getting out of their cars, some getting into them, men and women dressed nice enough that they looked at the ground to get to where they were going. Prostitution wasn't illegal and hadn't been for some time, but buying an escort was still an activity that people felt was worthy of judgement.

For once, Laxus approached Somnium's doors without the same sort of fear. Captain Milkovich couldn't look at him with judgement tonight—this was part of the job.

Jellal opened the door and Angel was there to greet them. She was dressed in something white and leather and there was a gun undisguised on her hip. All of Somnium's employees were licenced to carry. "You have to be fucking kidding me, boys."

"Hey, Angel," Jellal said with a smile. "Table for two."

"Do you have a tumor or something growing in that brain of yours?" she asked.

"Just came for a drink."

"Bullshit."

"It's true. No badge." He opened his coat for her to inspect.

"No gun either, right?"

"Would you believe me if I said yes?"

"No."

"Would you keep your mouth closed about it if I asked you to let me keep it?"

She propped her hand on her hip. "You know _Tante_ Eileen doesn't like people coming in here with weapons."

"And I know people still do."

"Not under my watch."

Laxus thought that was the end of it and was prepared to part with the gun strapped to his leg. Angel said, "Brandy's at the back door. She's saving up for a new pair of boots."

"Thanks." Jellal backed out the way he came and went left, through an alley behind Somnium. The same alley where their last victim died. Laxus looked at the spot. Everything had been cleaned up now but death had a way of lingering. He felt uneasy like someone was watching them but a look at up and down the alley revealed nothing.

Jellal went to a door cut into the wall that was barely visible—there were no lights behind Somnium. He knocked on it and a girl with short hair, wearing not much of anything opened up. She looked them over skeptically, eyes lingering on where their clothes wrinkled on their weapons.

Jellal said, "Angel sent us."

The woman chewed a piece of gum methodically. It smelled like cherry. "Just the two guns?"

"Yeah."

She held out her hand without another word. Jellal pulled a roll of cash from his pocket and counted into her hand a large sum. She didn't move an inch. He counted out some more. And a little extra. She smiled and stepped aside.

Laxus tried to follow; she stepped in the way again and the process repeated.

"Robbery," Laxus muttered with his pockets significantly lighter.

"Enjoy your stay, gentlemen."

"Can't afford to now, can we?"

"Come on." Jellal grabbed Laxus' elbow and pulled him further into some kind of back room where dry food for the kitchen was kept, cans and grains and the like. There was a tray with shortbread cookies on it. Laxus swiped one, figuring no one would miss it and he'd need the sugar to help keep him awake if he was still trying to lay off the caffeine.

It was better than Porlyusica's. He'd never tell her as much.

Jellal stopped him at the door. "Alright. We get a table at the back. I'll go to the bar and get us a drink, you lay low and try not to look so much like a cop."

It was the same old thing every time; there was no arguing, though, Jellal looked less like a cop than Laxus did, though Laxus couldn't pinpoint what it was about him exactly that said he could walk with the criminals or the saints. Gramps had a special saying for it. _Je ne sais quoi_ or some bullshit. Fancy for _I don't know_.

Jellal held out his hand and Laxus sighed and handed over a twenty. "I'm fucking broke after tonight."

Jellal grinned. "Tante Eileen doesn't do anything cheap."

Apparently. Jellal opened the door and soft blue light and music poured in. Someone was on stage keying on a piano and singing into the microphone. Their voice was sweet and clear. Laxus fell into step behind his partner, moving into the empty hallway and then sliding into the bar unnoticed. There was a round table seemingly just for them, sitting empty in the corner. Laxus pulled up a seat; Jellal headed to the bar.

"Menu for you boys?"

Laxus suppressed a surprised yell and looked up. Juvia had hunted them down with uncanny ability and came bearing two food menus, which were really just two pieces of elaborately carved board with things written so, so neatly in chalk. There were only a few things on the list, a couple appetisers, a couple mains and your choice of three desserts. There was no price on any of them, meaning he was likely going to have to go digging through the dregs of his wallet to pay for it all. "Thanks."

"I'll be back in a few." She swayed away through the tables. Laxus watched the spider tattoo on her neck until he couldn't see it anymore.

Jellal appeared. "Guess we've been spotted."

"Didn't take very long."

"Good thing we're not worried about the staff." Jellal handed Laxus his drink.

"No change?"

Jellal grinned innocently. "I thought you were buying this round?"

"Have you seen the menus? There aren't even prices."

"Our clientele is usually a little more well-to-do than motley MPD detectives." A hand glided over Laxus' shoulder. He looked at the fingernails first and _knew_ ; they were scarlet and shiny and long, like claws, almost, actually. She lowered herself into his lap without shame and pressed her mouth to his ear. Her voice dripped out, smooth and smoky and dangerous. "Somnium has never been a safe place for lawmen."

Laxus was uncomfortable sneaking into Somnium before. Now his skin was crawling. "I'm aware."

"Are you, Detective?" Eileen's free hand played with the top few buttons of Laxus' shirt, those which he'd left undone. Her skin was warm and her body was soft; his heart beat ashamedly hard when she curled into him. "Because I think you think this is a game."

"No, _Tante_."

"Then perhaps you're stupid? You fuck my girl without paying, you search my establishment without going through the right channels—"

"I had a warrant."

Eileen leaned back just slightly so Laxus could see her dark eyes rimmed with black liner; she was still close enough that her nose could have touched his. "Those are the official channels, not the right ones."

"We didn't mean to be rude."

She acted like he hadn't spoken. "And then your return, Detective Dreyar. Which leads me to believe either you're without a brain or you don't respect me." She picked up Laxus' hand and laid it against her clavicle like they were close. Her heart beat beneath that skin. Hell if Laxus could feel it, though. It wasn't like his own traitorous heart thundering along.

She leaned in again. "So?"

"So?"

Laxus felt Eileen's mouth curve. And not just that. Teeth, scraping his ear. He was torn between fear and arousal, which was perhaps Eileen's MO.

"Are you _stupid_ , Detective Dreyar or are you _insolent_?"

"I'm not sure there is an option there that properly describes—" Laxus cut off as Jellal kicked him under the table. It was hard to misconstrue his meaning. Laxus tried, "We're here for the atmosphere." That earned him another kick and _Tante_ Eileen's sharp nails in his previously combed hair.

"I have a room, Detective, for people that lie to me."

"You seem like that kind of person." He couldn't help himself.

"Would you like to come see it?"

Her threat was clear but it was delivered in such a nice way, Laxus allowed his stiffening cock to imagine what that might entail if she wasn't such a wicked bitch. Not for too long, she was holding something in her left hand that he couldn't see and he wasn't convinced it wasn't a knife, and there were enough guns trained on him from dark corners to kill the mood. "Actually," he laughed awkwardly. "Um—"

A new voice said, "Excuse me, _Tante_. _Tante_ Erza asked for your help in the office."

Laxus had never been so glad to be interrupted. Juvia had returned, looking ready to take their order.

Eileen smiled not like a woman foiled and stood gracefully. Her eyes skimmed over Laxus' face and then dropped lower. "Maybe you should stay a little while, Detective Dreyar, _pay_ one of the girls upstairs to take care of that. That is our business here, after all."

"Thank you, _Tante_." What the hell else could he say?

"I'll add it to your tab." She left. Juvia had been standing tall in _Tante_ Eileen's presence; as soon as she couldn't see her anymore, though, her shoulders slumped a little and her hands shook just slightly smoothing the black dress she wore. "Have you decided on your order?" Her voice, too, was a little shaky.

Jellal rhymed off a whole meal. _How_ he could still be hungry not only after their burgers but _that_ display, Laxus didn't know. Runners. They were demons or something.

Juvia looked at Laxus. "You know, maybe just an appetizer. Shrimp sounds good."

Juvia smiled and for a moment looked like a little more than Kyouka's handmaiden. "Give us a few minutes." She disappeared the way _Tante_ Eileen had. Laxus slumped back in his chair.

Jellal said, "She doesn't like that you're banging Mira without paying."

"She can't _stop_ Mira from having a relationship," Laxus countered.

Jellal's brow went up. "Is that what it is?"

The king of avoidance, Laxus took a deep gulp of his drink. It was beer but _strong_. "What is this?"

"Bartender called it _Yorsh_ or something. Saw her dumping vodka into it."

Laxus drank it back and felt better. "Has she ever done that to you?"

The good thing about partners was that Laxus didn't really have to explain himself, Jellal knew what he was getting at. " _Tante_ Eileen? No."

"Erza?"

Jellal said only, "Somnium is trouble."

That was a good way to describe it.

There was movement on stage; someone brought out a huge martini glass prop and the singer proved she could do more than just sing. Laxus didn't let himself get too distracted by the skin show, monitoring the bar for suspicious looking characters. The only problem was, _everyone_ in Somnium was suspicious looking. Too much leather. Too much black. Too many bulges, some weapons, some not. The women that came through Somnium's doors were mostly boisterous and forward, charismatic in one way or another, either there with their partners to visit upstairs or there to find a partner to visit upstairs. There was more skin than clothing by the bar and he saw more than one person slide into the shadows with someone on their arm.

Juvia returned with their meals. " _Tante_ Eileen says she's prepared a room for you, Detective. Once you finish your meal."

Laxus smiled tightly. "Thanks."

"Another drink?"

Laxus killed it and handed her the glass. "I can't fucking believe this," he griped as soon as he and Jellal were alone again.

"I think this is the nicest thing she's done to someone she hates."

"It's not a joke," Laxus said. "Why didn't she come and pinch you, huh? You're in deep with her daughter. You'd think that'd be the bigger crime."

Jellal could spare only a bare shrug. Laxus rolled his eyes and committed himself to his cooling shrimp, though he plucked through them slowly, buying as much time as he could on the ground floor.

In a crowd where _everyone_ stood out, he looked for the people that blended in. He caught the mayor by the bar. He was in a wig and had his hat pulled over his head but no one could hide that long, hooked nose. One of Acnologia's men lounged at the bar, knee-deep in a bottle of vermouth. And Natsu Dragneel came down the stairs at almost a jog. He stopped at the bar and snagged a gun off the bartender and then promptly left.

"Did you see that?"

"Dragneel? Yeah. He's lurking around here a lot lately, isn't he?" Jellal mused.

Laxus made sure to say, "I don't like it."

The bartender lifted her hand and Juvia appeared at her side. Laxus watched them interact. Juvia was much more relaxed around her, nodding and then looking Laxus' way.

"I think that means your number's up."

Laxus chewed and swallowed his last piece of shrimp reluctantly. "I'm just going to tell them thanks but no thanks."

"And _Tante_ Eileen never lets us back in Somnium again." Jellal took a huge swig of his own beer.

"She probably knows who the killer is and is leading me upstairs so that they can poison me and kill me before we can get too close." Laxus was only half-kidding.

Juvia left the bar with another drink and came toward their table.

Jellal said, "Too much publicity, these killings aren't _Tante_ Eileen's style."

He was right. _Tante_ Eileen liked to pick and choose where and when she got her attention. She wouldn't have chosen such an ugly and blunt way for Somnium to make headlines. Laxus sighed. "What are you going to do?"

"Keep canvassing the place. Keep your phone on, I'll let you know if anything comes up."

Juvia stopped at Laxus' side and offered him her hand. He took it, allowing her fingers to slide between his with a familiarity they didn't share. "This way, Mister Dreyar."

Laxus shared one last look with his partner before leaving. Jellal actually looked _glad_ to have the table to himself. And it wasn't difficult to see why. Scarlet appeared out of the office and drifted toward him. "Canvassing," Laxus complained under his breath. Jellal wasn't paying attention, dead to the world for all intents and purposes.

Juvia was pulling him. Laxus lengthened his steps to keep up, stepping around a man at the bar with oddly styled hair, sitting beside the mayor.

There was a time when Laxus hadn't been very familiar with Somnium's interior but now he could name all the paintings on all the walls and tell a person the order in which the upstairs rooms were presented. There was the Rose Room, the Lilac Room, Forget-me-Not, and the Iris. The last was open and Mira was kneeling on the bed with her legs spread and her hair tumbling over her shoulder, resting on her lifted breasts.

Juvia released Laxus and, after pressing his fresh drink on him, said, "Enjoy your stay."

The door closed and it was just him and Mira and Garbage in the speakers singing, _I would die for you_.

"This is a surprise." Mira's voice was torrid.

"Ha." Laxus smiled awkwardly. "I was not so politely told to visit upstairs."

There must have been a clasp at the back of the skirt she wore because with a flick of her fingers she was in a pair of black and purple panties that matched her corset. "I'm glad. You should come more often."

"You're an expensive girl, Mirajane."

"But I'd make it worth it." Her fingers swirled on the outside of her panties; her eyes fluttered. "Come here."

He'd never been very good at denying her.

Mira welcomed him into her bed with a kiss that left him dizzy. He always loved kissing her. Knowing he was paying for it brought a little bit of danger and a little bit of fun that he couldn't seem to deny. Mira's mouth curled like she knew just what he was thinking. She pulled him down the rest of the way then put her leg over his and sat in his lap. He was already stiff and grabbing for her, though he knew better. Mira liked to do things the way she liked to do them and pushed his hands aside.

"Give me this," she took his drink and rested it on the bedside table. "Lie back. Relax."

Laxus consented to give her control and let his head touch her pillow. Mira's best quality was her patience. It came through with everything she did, from cooking to speaking to lovemaking. She had no set system but she did have certain _ways_ she liked to enjoy things and she liked Laxus best when he was thinking the least, meaning she used every little trick she knew to get his head empty of everything but her.

Getting his shirt undone was an achingly slow process. She'd kiss him on the mouth and on the neck while she undid one button, and then she'd sit up to admire him and undo the next. Her hips wiggled just a little and he'd feel how warm she was, how wet; the next button would be undone seconds before he could stand the stillness no more.

Her kisses moved from his neck to his chest when they could, wet and open-mouthed and full of promise that she held back from him just because, stopping at the place where his pants sat on his hips. Laxus betrayed himself while waiting for her to continue, tilting his pelvis just slightly.

Instead of undoing his pants and getting down to it like Laxus hoped, she came all the way back up and kissed him again. It was maddening. She wouldn't let him take her hips, she wouldn't let him grab her breasts, pushing his hands away yet again.

"I want to touch you."

"Not yet."

"You're driving me crazy."

"I'm giving you your money's worth," she returned but did allow his finger to enter her mouth, where she sucked slowly. Laxus quickly found that was actually meaner than not letting him touch her at all. Mira knew it, too. She pulled away and laughed. The sound moved through every part of him. "Still crazy?" she whispered into his ear.

" _Yes._ "

She echoed Shirley Manson in saying, " _You're just like me_ ," and then started flicking open the buckles of her corset. The metal clinked and clacked and the leather squeaked. It came away from her and though Laxus had seen her nude a hundred times, she looked somehow different. There was power for her in this room, on this bed, more than in other places, and she liked it.

She lifted both his hands and made him touch her breasts. Her skin was a little bit damp from the leather. He'd be lying if he said he didn't like it. He grabbed her more forcefully and was reprimanded for being greedy, pushed back into place and hit across the cheek hard enough that it was shocking but soft enough he knew she was still playing. He took his hands from her and locked them behind his head and was rewarded for being contrite. She finally undid his pants.

Watching her would never get old, Laxus decided as Mira left lipstick stains on his boxers. He'd never get tired of hearing her harried breaths or feeling her sharp nails dig into his stomach. He'd always want to hear her say, ' _You're just like me_.'

It was those little things more than inviting her over for dinner or getting upset that she was a person of interest in a murder investigation, that complicated their relationship in ways Laxus wasn't sure he _liked._

If Mira was aware of his realization or the struggle he had with it, she made no notion as she stripped herself of her underwear and came back to the bed with a condom she put on skillfully and a jar full of lube that she used liberally.

"It's one of those days, huh?" One of his favourite days, to be honest.

"You need to get your money's worth, right?" she asked with a saucy smile and got back on top.

Laxus let her position everything; it was easier than fumbling around. She sprawled back when she was ready and made him insert his fingers, too. Making her come was easier some days than others. When they were together like this, Laxus found Mira was very receptive. She just needed things that other girls he'd been with hadn't, meaning that she was a demanding partner but a fun one, too. She pushed her boundaries and pushed his, abolishing monotony. The only thing that scared him was today, it was anal, what would it be ten years from now? _Were_ these things trajectory based and _would_ she need bigger and better things later on? And was that a _bad_ thing?

Mira grabbed her own breast and came loudly. Laxus looped his arm around her waist and pulled her in closer, going deeper. Her cries turned high-pitched and breathless around his name for another orgasm and he decided he didn't _care_ what it was she wanted him to do, he'd probably do it just to hear her say his name like that time and again.

She felt so good that Laxus had to bite his cheek to take away a little bit of his pleasure, using pain as a ballast to make sure he actually did get his money's worth. It worked for a while but eventually, the trick ran out and he filled the condom.

Mira slowed to a stop and sat upright, though she made no move to rush him out. She did the same thing she always did afterwards and touched his chest, moving her fingers slowly, lightly, while she breathed raggedly. Laxus picked up one of her curls. Her hair was ruined.

"Sorry."

Mira took his hand away from her hair and rested it against her chest much like _Tante_ Eileen had. _Unlike Tante_ Eileen, her heart thundered. "I'm done anyway."

Laxus looked at the clock on the wall. "It's still early."

She shrugged. "I sort of make my own schedule. I had a few high-end clients earlier and you, Sir, just made sure I can eat escargot for the rest of the week."

"Yeah?"

"And I have some stuff I want to check out," she said leadingly. "If you're free, I could maybe use some muscle."

"That sounds serious." Laxus' joke fizzled when he realized Mira _meant_ it. "What's going on?"

She adjusted and came to lie down beside him, putting her mouth next to his ear. "Natsu came to see me tonight."

"I saw him leaving."

"He said something that got me on edge."

"Is Zeref threatening you again?"

She shook her head. "He made it sound like he knew where Lisanna was, and God knows I don't want her in that shitty asylum but I want her out there with that crazy bitch Kagura even _less_."

The glow of his orgasm left abruptly. Laxus sat up on his elbow. "What did he say?"

"Just that she missed me," Mira said quietly. "How would he _know_ that, though? Unless he was talking to her?"

"That's all?"

"I got mad and acted out and Gildarts kicked him out before I could get much information out of him."

Laxus sighed and started doing up his pants.

"Does that mean you'll help me?"

"That means I'm going to go talk to him and you're going to stay here."

"He won't tell you anything, not without me there."

"I have a persuasive roll of quarters."

"No. Zeref will kill you if you start knocking Natsu around," Mira warned him. "He isn't afraid of the police, Laxus."

Laxus' phone started ringing. He tugged it from his pocket and saw Jellal's name on the screen. "Yeah."

"I just called a unit in," came Jellal's response. "Mayor Neekis was just found out back, downed like our last guy."

"Fuck."

"Meet me out here," Jellal said and hung up.

"What's wrong?" Mira asked.

"Another body was found out back," Laxus said shortly as he crammed his phone back into his pocket.

"One of Somnium's guests?"

"Mayor Neekis. I saw him at the fucking bar when I was coming up here." Meaning that their killer was _right there_. It was likely Laxus walked _past_ them. "Shit."

"Wait," Mira said, realizing he was leaving. "What about Lisanna?"

"I'm sorry, Mira, it has to wait." Laxus did his buttons up too fast and had to redo them because he did them wrong. Just as soon as he was able, he left the Iris Room behind. The people in Somnium had yet to realize that something terrible had happened, the burlesque dancer was still on stage, Juvia was still trailing between tables, the bartender was still serving one drink to her guests and two to herself.

Laxus stopped at the table he and Jellal had shared and snagged his coat off the back of the chair. He put it on as he walked, exiting Somnium the way he'd entered, through the back alley. The woman Angel had called Brandy was gone, it was just Jellal and the alley and, of course, Mayor Neekis collapsed on the ground in a puddle of vomit.

"Fuck," Laxus swore again.


	10. Chapter 10

**_X: Jellal_ **

Jellal had a headache. The kind that throbbed between his temples and drained all of his energy. It was so late that the sun had already risen, and had been that way for some time, and he hadn't seen his bed yet. There was cotton between his ears and a hollow in his belly. He was tired and hungry.

Mayor Neekis' body had been brought back to the morgue, all of the evidence that could be gathered up was gathered, Jellal's notebook was out of paper after taking down a plethora of names and numbers and statements.

Everyone he spoke to seemed to _remember_ the mayor being in the bar. The hitch? They couldn't remember who it was he spoke with. Some people said a man, some people said a woman, some people said no one. The best Jellal could tell was Neekis was speaking to transients as he enjoyed the entertainment, and wasn't particularly involved with any of them.

A search through Somnium's record logs told them something that made the vein on Laxus' forehead bulge—Neekis had seen Mira just before he died. He'd been up there for an hour before coming downstairs and sitting at the bar.

Questioning Mira didn't get them anywhere. She told them the same story again and again and told it flawlessly. She even offered to let them go through her room, searching for evidence.

They found nothing.

Jellal was inclined to believe her. He thought Laxus was, too, but knew that look his partner wore. He was skeptical of himself, in his objectivity. Jellal got it. It wouldn't be the first time someone close to Laxus went behind his back and did wrong. He was trying to be open-minded, and in doing so was actually being skeptical.

Broaching the subject was like swimming through shark-infested waters with a bleeding gash. Laxus got angry and when he was angry, he was unpleasant, so Jellal let it lie. For now, anyway. Eventually, Laxus would purge his thoughts on the matter.

Jellal heard a lighter _schwick_ and narrowed in on Laxus standing by the brick wall with his crumpled old cigarette in his mouth and the tip of the flame almost touching the tip of the cigarette. Like he felt Jellal's eyes on him, he looked up. Jellal watched first stubbornness flit across his face—he was going to smoke anyway—and then guilt—he'd had such a hard time quitting before.

"I hate you."

"I didn't say anything."

"You were thinking it, though," Laxus said.

"That's your conscience, not me."

Laxus sighed and put the unlit cigarette back behind his ear and his lighter back in his pocket.

Jellal leaned beside him and watched the last of the technicians slip beneath the Caution barrier and get back into their cars. Soon, it was just them and a couple of uniforms in the alley. "I saw Jenny Realight earlier."

"Yep. She's been bugging me for a statement all night. I told her to walk."

"She said Captain promised her some of your time earlier. About the last vic."

"Mmhm. I didn't think she'd agree. How stupid of me."

Jellal laughed. "She was probably thinking better you than her."

"Probably." Laxus blew out a lungful of air that condensed in the cold. He did it again like he was smoking. "Are we done out here? My fucking feet are freezing."

"I think so. For now. Captain pulled the ME in early to get on the autopsy. We should have results soon and go from there."

"Then I think we should get out of here."

Beau was probably wondering what happened to him. She liked Wendy well enough but Jellal knew it wasn't the same. Wendy didn't stay with her for very long anytime she visited and Beau didn't like sleeping alone very much.

"Let's hit it, then."

Laxus was quiet all the way to the Tahoe. Jellal passed it off as exhaustion but when the truck was started, he looked in the backseat like he suspected a stowaway. Once he determined what Jellal already knew—the coast was clear—he dropped, "Natsu told Mira that he knew where Lisanna was."

Jellal let that sink in, churned over what that meant and what that meant in the future. "He broke her out?"

"I guess so."

"And now he's keeping her and Kagura someplace?"

"Seems like, yeah."

"Where?"

"Mira said Gildarts interrupted them before she could get the location out of Natsu," Laxus said.

Jellal drummed his fingers on the wheel, thinking. "He'll never tell us where she is."

"Really? I think we could probably get him to speak."

"And violate protocol doing it," Jellal said.

"So what?"

"Natsu might not rake us over the coals for it, but Zeref would. We have to be cleverer than that. We need him to lead us to her."

"If you say stakeout I'm quitting."

"You're not quitting."

"You want to make a bet?" Laxus challenged.

Jellal rolled his eyes. "You don't have the cash to pay up." Not after _Tante_ Eileen got to his bank account. "We'll head home, catch a few hours of sleep and then set up. When Natsu goes to Lisanna, we'll follow." Easy. Tidy.

Laxus, who never cared too much for the rules before, said, "Captain didn't _say_ she wanted us investigating the breakout."

"We'll tell her we thought it was connected."

"We did?"

"Sure. So far, all the guys Mira's been seeing have been culled." Laxus got sour. Jellal said, "Natsu was up there. We're worried for his safety. Another high-profile kill? She'll thank us for tying it up. Are you in?"

It didn't take him long to decide. "Alright."

"Good." Jellal turned onto the suburban road Laxus called home and pulled into the driveway. Porlyusica's huge pink Cadillac was there.

"Great," Laxus muttered. "Just what I needed. Just call Porlyusica Shreeky."

Jellal laughed too hard imagining Porlyusica as the Care Bear's nemesis. He really was tired. "Maybe she made breakfast, though?" His stomach cramped thinking about food. He was starving.

"You want to come in and see?"

Jellal shook his head. "The dog."

"Right." Laxus got out of the car but leaned in through the door. "When'll you be back?"

Jellal checked the time. It was ten. "Let's shoot for seven." Visiting your escaped convict of a girlfriend seemed like a nighttime endeavour.

"Alright." Laxus slammed the door. Jellal waited until he was in the house before backing down the driveway.

He considered stopping at the station to pick up his car but the likelihood of the press being there made him decide that he was too tired to leap through the appropriate hoops and he took the Tahoe home.

Well before Jellal made it into his apartment, he knew he had a visitor. He smelled her perfume in the elevator. That gave him a little burst of energy.

His apartment door was unlocked when he tried it and the smell of toasting pastry hit his nose. Again, his stomach cramped. He heard Beau's paws hit the floor and the shepherd rounded the corner at a run. Jellal expected her to jump but she circled his legs and told him in no uncertain terms what she thought of him being gone for so long. He couldn't help but agree and promised her a run. Later. After breakfast. After sleep.

"I took her out already."

Erza stood in the kitchen with her back against the counter, a plate of toasted waffles held out in front of her. At her side was a troublesome bottle of tequila.

"Thanks."

"Mmhm. Do you like waffles? I guess I found them in your freezer. So yes." She spoke a little stiltedly. Jellal determined she was just awkward letting herself in and not high. How many days would she appear in his home before she stopped feeling that way about it?

"Thanks."

Erza quarter smiled and handed him the plate. Jellal set it on the counter and took the knife and fork Erza offered, too. The first bite was almost too sweet, she'd doused everything in maple syrup and butter. It was satisfying in ways he couldn't quite pinpoint. He ate the rest quickly.

Erza draped herself on the counter, looking unintentionally sultry in the things she called pajamas, black silk shorts so short he could see the curve of her behind and a matching shirt so thin, he could see every detail of the skin beneath. It was distracting. "Did you get any more leads?"

"No."

"Pity."

"Do you actually feel that way?" Jellal asked.

"Why wouldn't I? I don't know how much longer we can keep our clientele coming around when they keep dying _and_ I don't like walking outside to dead bodies."

Neither did he, when he opened Somnium's back door for Erza and her pipe and found the Mayor sprawled out on the pavement. "I'll do what I can."

"Please do. We don't _only_ have male customers, but it's a pretty big chunk of our business. I had a man tell me tonight that he's never coming back and he was a weekly regular."

She didn't usually push him so hard. Jellal chalked it up to stress. "Is your mother putting pressure on you?"

Erza said bluntly, "She thinks if I'm going to keep a detective around, he should be worth his salt." Like her mother, her tongue was a weapon.

"We're working as fast as we can."

She looked like she had something else primed. Then she sighed. "She's being… difficult lately."

"In my experience, your mother's always been difficult."

"Yes," Erza agreed. "Yes, she has been."

Jellal ate the last piece of his waffle. Erza took his empty plate and dropped it in the sink, then went for the tequila and poured him a shot, and herself.

Jellal said, "I have to hit the road again soon."

"So you should drink faster."

"You're a bad influence."

"I've had a bad day."

"So what's your excuse for all the other times you're a bad influence?"

"Shut up." Erza pressed two fingers against the bottom of the shot glass and lifted it up to his mouth. He'd never had much of a strong constitution when it came to her and drank it back. Erza eased the sting, not with a lime but her tongue and pushed him back against the counter. If the tequila wasn't message enough, he knew absolutely what she wanted then. He put his shot glass on the counter so he could kiss her properly; she almost never initiated this level of intimacy and he wanted to squeeze out all of its worth.

Buttons presented no obstacle for Erza, she undid his coat, loosened his tie, and had his dress shirt undone in record time. Her hands were cold on his skin, and thorough, leaving their trace as they moved from his shoulders down to his belly button. Her mouth followed, much warmer. Jellal was stiff when she got to his pants and kissed through the material.

"Did you want to move to the bedroom?"

Erza looked up at him through thick, dark lashes. "We'd be there if I did."

She really was in a mood. He leaned back against the counter and let her do as she wanted. It was easier to let her get her frustrations out this way. And he liked it, to be honest, the way she pushed against his thighs and kept him flat against the counter, the way she undid his pants and pulled him out right there in the small, illuminated kitchen with the stove at his one side, the sink at the other.

Erza's impatience dripped from every action. She opened her mouth and took him inside. It took Jellal a moment to really appreciate the sensation, it only felt really good when she'd taken him in a few times, and even after that, Erza seemed to get more from it than he did, making short little moans and, when she cared to release him, grabbing her breasts and occasionally stroking between her legs. Jellal wanted to see more of her and slid the straps of her tank top down over her arms. Erza did the rest, pushing it down so her breasts came out.

"Grab my hair," Erza commanded, and Jellal did. Loosely at first, guiding her back into a steady rhythm but she seemed to really enjoy it so he tightened his hold and tipped his hips for her. It was really too fast for him to pick up on the nuances of her skill, but the way she was enjoying herself, the way she made herself come, made everything tighten for him. She kept going through her orgasm; her moans travelled _through_ him. He said something that may have been a warning. Erza kept going so he came on her tongue.

Erza slowed to a stop and leaned back after Jellal released her hair. Red locks were everywhere, messy, her cheeks were high with colour. She wiped the back of her mouth and stood, reversing their places. Now she was against the counter and he was between her legs. She kicked off her shorts and pulled Jellal in so he was pressing against her, but no further, not while she went back for the tequila and took another huge sip, this one straight from the bottle, and another.

She handed it over to him and Jellal set it right back down. She didn't seem to notice that he didn't drink any or if she did, she didn't care, more interested in getting him to grab her. Jellal did that gently and kissed her that way, too, remembering how it wasn't so long ago she wouldn't let him have her like this. She had to control everything and absolutely no kissing. He wasn't foolish enough to think he'd won the war, she was still reserved and still got drunk or high when she wanted to be together, but he liked to think that he was at least getting his licks in. She came to his apartment, after all, she initiated this.

Erza's back bowed. There wasn't much room on the counter, her shoulders hit the cupboards and she couldn't lie back. That was okay. Jellal replaced his fingers with his mouth, kissing one of her pert nipples and then the other, and then backing up and bending so he could kiss between her legs that way. Erza's breathing elevated and she gripped his hair. He stopped before she could get too demanding and Erza huffed in frustration. He kissed that away and positioned at her entrance again. She wrapped her legs around his middle and pulled him in.

If there was one thing Jellal could say he liked best about being this way with Erza, it was the way she seemed to suck up every bit of enjoyment. She was vocal, not with praises but with moans, and very physical, in the sense that she was always either touching herself or touching him. How much was real and how much was an act? He never knew. He liked to believe she wasn't like this with other people, though, it made him feel less foolish for trying to court the Spider's only daughter, professional escort and the face of Somnium.

Erza grabbed his askew and loose tie and pulled him in close. Jellal thought it was to kiss him but it was to spit out a demand. "Harder. Fuck me."

Jellal draped Erza's legs over his arms and pulled her down so she was no longer sitting on the counter, just holding herself there with her planted elbows. He held her aloft and did as she asked, slamming into her and making her moans breathless. One of the shot glasses got dropped into the sink where it broke, the tequila bottle got pushed against the backsplash, the toaster behind Erza's head left crumbs in her hair when she tilted her head back. She was lovely. Drunk and needy and lovely. And orgasming. Jellal felt her spasm and her back bowed even further, cinching around him like a soft vice. Pleasure rolled through him, starting at his toes and moving up. He pulled out and came on her belly, ruining her very nice pajamas.

The seconds that followed were split by heavy breaths. Erza wiggled some and started to lift herself back up onto the counter with shaking arms. Jellal set her legs back on the ground. She didn't say anything. She didn't kiss him or scold him. She moved by him and went to the washroom. He heard the shower turn on.

Jellal took his time, picking up her shorts from the floor, cleaning out the sink, putting the cap back on the tequila bottle and cleaning the counter and the floor of any mess. When he was done, Erza was still in the shower so he decided that meant she wanted him to join her. There was no turning into him when he opened up the glass door and stepped inside. She barely acknowledged him, actually. Jellal thought like everything else, this was a front.

Water spray wetted his face and his hair. It was too hot; Erza always liked her showers like that. He preferred them cool. He moved her wet hair aside and kissed her shoulder and her neck and even her cheek. Her shoulders were stiff before he touched her waist. They dropped and she leaned back into him ever so subtly. If he wasn't always watching for her tells, he never would have noticed. He smiled. The war wasn't won, no, but he did like how many victories were on his side.

Erza renewed conversation with a macabre opener. "Do you really think Mira could be killing those people?"

"No."

Her shoulders dropped a little more and she leaned her back against his chest more fully. Water transferred from her skin to his, startlingly warm. "But you think she's involved?"

"I think it's suspicious that all those men were seeing her within an hour of their death."

"Do you think she's ordering them dead?"

Usually, Erza didn't let him wring her for information but it seemed to Jellal she was inviting him to do so. "I don't think Mira's that kind of girl, do you?"

"We're all capable of awful things."

"But why would she? Where's her motive?"

"Does motive matter?"

"Motive always matters." There was always a reason for killing. Vendettas, psychosis, passion. Poisoning took time and planning, so Jellal was inclined to believe that there was some kind of _reason_ behind all this. She didn't just _break_ and decide that she was going to poison random men, right? "Has she seen the victims before?"

"Mister Erigor would stop into Somnium on the rare occasion he was in town," Erza said. "He always saw Mira. Mayor Neekis, too. Simon… generally, he wanted to see me, but he went to Mira now and again. And Mister Connell…" She screwed up her face. "Does that _matter_? Mira has _lots_ of customers. She's one of our most popular escorts."

"You were the one that brought this up," Jellal said, perhaps unwisely.

Just like that, she was angry again. "Because your presence at Somnium is _disruptive_. You're _ruining_ Mira's customer base with these accusations."

"None of this is public knowledge," Jellal told her. "I haven't ruined anything."

"That reporter has been snooping around Somnium," Erza said. "She's been trying to get a peek at our log books and she's been cornering everyone she can for information. How long do you think it's going to be before she finds out that you're digging through Mira's client list and puts two and two together?"

"I have to go where the investigation takes me," Jellal said. "I can't skew the evidence."

She looked at him for the first time in many long minutes and Jellal read her clearly. He had once before, why not again?

They finished the shower in silence and afterwards, Erza dressed in a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt and left without much of a goodbye. Jellal climbed into bed with Beau and tried to get as much sleep as he could, which ended up being six hours before he had to get up, take his dog for a cold and snowy run, shower again, and hit the road.

* * *

Dinner, which also happened to be breakfast, was a BLT on a bagel. Jellal bought Laxus one, too, to make up for the drinks he made his partner buy last night. Laxus ate it all and looked hungry for more. The only thing Jellal had was a bag of Doritos that Laxus gaily marched through while they parked at the mouth of road, waiting for Natsu to come tearing out of his driveway and into the city.

"He could choose to go the other way," Laxus reasoned, likely if Jellal had to guess, just to be a drag.

"If he's trying to throw someone off his tail, he'd chose the road most travelled," Jellal said. "Going the long way is too obvious."

"I think you're giving him too much credit. Or you're overthinking it. Hell, probably both."

Jellal took a handful of Doritos and crunched on them to avoid answering. He gambled choosing this route. There were only two ways into town, and Natsu had to choose _one_ of them.

Laxus didn't let the silence linger for long. "What were you and Red doing out in the alley last night, eh? When you found Neekis?"

"What do you think?" Jellal responded.

"She wanted to do it out there? Is that like a thing for Somnium's girls? Because Mira will do it anytime anywhere. She _loves_ it. I don't fucking want to get caught but what can I do?"

Jellal looked at his partner and shook his head. "Erza was smoking a joint, not trying to fuck."

Laxus huffed. "Never mind then."

"Have you talked to Mira since last night?"

"She's not answering her phone. I think she's mad we were asking her questions again."

It bothered him, that was obvious. Jellal tried to be supportive. "She'll get over it."

"You make it sound like we're fighting over which TV channel to watch. I'm investigating a murder and it doesn't fucking matter _what_ I do, I keep coming back to her doorstep."

Jellal felt like he was chanting a mantra saying, "She knows that we'll follow the evidence, she said so when she said she'd rather us handle the investigation."

"She didn't count on everything pointing to her then, did she?"

"If she didn't do it, we'll figure it out."

Laxus scrubbed his hand through his hair, frustrated. "Have you talked to Capt about Neekis?"

"Briefly." Ultear was so unhappy, Jellal had to find an excuse to get off the phone with her. His ear was still ringing. "She wants a debriefing. I told her we had to follow up on a lead and we'd do it as soon as we're able."

Laxus puffed out his cheeks. "She's going to be mad when she realizes what kind of lead we're following."

"Nah. I have a good feeling about this one," Jellal said.

"Glad that's one of us."

The bag of Doritos got finished. Laxus turned to the radio, scrolling through the channels, listening first to music, then the news. Everywhere was talking about the asylum breakout and the Mayor's death, and the police's inability to comment on either. He got bored of that rather quick and turned to his phone. He was on that for another hour before informing Jellal that he didn't think Mira was mad anymore because she sent him compromising selfie.

"Proud of you," Jellal muttered, distracted by the set of headlights coming down the snowy road.

"I wonder if fucked up relationships are it for me," Laxus mused. "There was that chick in IA, remember? She was a fucking cuckoo. And before her, I knew this girl who seemed normal enough but then we got into the bedroom and she was into some weird shit. Weirder than Mira. Which is a level of weird on its own. In Police Foundations, one of my professors was _in_. She was hot. But scary. Pretty sure she could have kicked my ass. That's a weird feeling. Emasculating, actually. Didn't matter that she was telling me to fuck her, I always felt like I was the one being fucked. And then—"

"Remember that rambling TMI thing your grandfather does and how much it pisses you off?" Jellal said.

That got him a glower. "This is different."

"Actually, it's not."

"Have I _ever_ shown you the old lady titties I get sent to me from Last Wishes? No. No, I haven't. Meaning this is _totally_ different. I rest my case."

Jellal took in a deep breath. "This is likely regret, but what the hell is Last Wishes?"

Laxus laughed humorlessly. "It's a porn site for people over sixty-five. Gramps is part of it. His new favourite way to torture me is to take stills and send them to my email."

"Why do you open the emails?"

"Because. The tricky old bugger has made an army of email addresses mimicking the ones at the MPD," Laxus complained. "The other day, I got an email from what I _thought_ was Captain Milkovich but when I opened it, you know what I saw? Sally Montgomery's tits."

"And that is?"

"A mature adult porn star," Laxus spat. "I fucking hate myself for knowing that."

Jellal grinned as he turned on the lights and pulled out of the pull off he'd hidden the Tahoe in.

"Where are we going?"

Jellal pointed ahead to the Chevelle that had passed. "That's our guy."

"Good eye." Laxus sat back and seemed to clear his head of all the nasty things his grandfather tried to fill it with. "Make sure you don't follow too close. Chances are, he'll be watching."

"Yeah," Jellal agreed and eased off on the gas, trailing six car-lengths behind, sometimes more. Natsu took a roundabout way to get to where he was going, stopping at a coffee shop and ordering something that he ate on the way, then heading to the drug store. Jellal put the Tahoe in the Hardware parking lot across the street and kept his eyes on the SS. It opened, Natsu got out and wandered into the store. It was hard to tell for sure but Jellal thought he was in the first aid aisle.

"What if he's just out running errands?" Laxus wondered.

"Then we wasted a lot of time," Jellal replied.

Laxus didn't thank him for his input.

Natsu came out again and took his car to the left. Jellal gave it a second, then started to follow once more. Natsu took a turn that brought him into the Stacks.

Laxus said, "Why is baby Dragneel slumming it in this part of town?"

Jellal saw a figure way ahead on the street corner. "He's picking up?"

"Okay. He can afford nice girls at _proper_ bordellos. Why's he playing STI roulette with the girls out here?"

Jellal could think of a hundred different reasons why but the one that felt most appropriate was, "He doesn't want to be caught associating with them."

"He's never cared before."

Jellal shook his head, seeing the glint of pale hair in the streetlight and things made a little more sense if he was correct. "I don't think he's looking to fuck her. They're meeting up for something."

Natsu started driving again. Jellal took a left.

"Where are you going?"

"There's another road out to the main one," Jellal explained, coming up on a stop sign and waiting, looking down the main road to where Natsu would most likely turn. He saw the nose of the Chevelle but no blinker so he thought it safe to assume that Natsu was turning right. He made the same turn and ended up back behind him again.

"You got lucky," Laxus told him.

"I call it skill, but hey, whatever gets you through."

Natsu made a right on a short street. Jellal crept by and waited to see which way he turned at the stoplight before following through on another street and coming in behind him once more. The next time Natsu turned was a left on Watcher Avenue. Jellal mimicked him and when Natsu made a sharp right into a nondescript parking lot, Jellal kept driving past, circling around the block once, then choosing a spot for the Tahoe in another parking lot down the road.

Laxus was out before the truck's e brake was engaged and jogging down the street. Jellal locked the vehicle and followed, catching up with a little bit of effort. Laxus had long legs.

"Look, more reasons not to smoke," Jellal joked. "You're almost getting fast."

Laxus said something rude as he came around a building on a street corner. Jellal caught his arm and pulled him up short on not much more evidence than two sets of tracks, one large and one small, a man's and woman's if he had to guess.

"This is it."

The tracks led between two buildings. It was hard to make your steps quiet in snow; he tried walking on his tiptoes and then heel to toe.

A corner of one of the old grey brick buildings came up. Jellal peeked around it and saw that the tracks entered another industrial building, this one squat. Laxus mimed and went ahead first, checking in the window and then trying the door handle. It was unlocked. The door squealed open lowly. Jellal edged up to it and listened through the crack. He could hear a huge industrial heater, shoes, and voices, one high and reedy. Afraid, if he had to put a term to it. Out came his gun. He mimed for Laxus to open the door further and went in, gun first. Laxus followed, letting the door close behind him with a not-so-quiet click, despite his efforts to be covert.

The voices stopped. Jellal held out his hand, motioning for Laxus to stop, too. Neither one of them breathed for a whole thirty seconds.

"Don't touch me," said the woman.

"I thought I heard something."

"And I think you're _crazy."_

Jellal came unstuck. He crept closer, over a grey concrete floor illuminated by fluorescent lights. Soon, he was close enough that distance and large spaces didn't echo and distort the voices so much.

"Hang on."

"I told you not to touch me."

"Alright. Fine. No touching."

" _Thank_ you."

There was a hallway. Jellal peeked around it and found a body on the floor. Male, and very, very still. That was all he could tell from this angle. Footsteps started and their quarry kept talking. Jellal put his back against the wall and motioned for Laxus to do the same.

"I can't believe this. I can't believe _you_. There is someone _dead_ in here and now we have to call the police."

"Mira—"

"No. I don't care what you say, Natsu. I'm doing it." A distressed Mira came around the corner, face illuminated by her phone. She'd dressed up for the night in a tall pair of leather heels and a short skirt, playing the part of the freelance escort on the Stacks' corner. Natsu caught up with her easily, swiping the phone from her hands. A short scuffle ensued in which Mira pushed Natsu hard and sent him stumbling back. The phone fell from his hand, bouncing twice and spinning before coming to a stop, and they both scrabbled for it, shoving and in Mira's case, kicking Natsu when he was crouching to grab up the purple case. He swore and called her something awful. Mira balled her hand into a fist.

Laxus spoke before the blood could spill. "Stop. Both of you. Stand and separate."

Mira squeaked and jumped to attention. Natsu went for his hip, looking for the revolver there, no doubt. Jellal trained his gun on him. "Don't."

Natsu looked up at the barrel and reluctantly raised his hands. Mira sighed. "Fuck."


	11. Chapter 11

 

**_XI: Natsu_ **

There was a water stain on the wood floor that had been there for years. Natsu first noticed it when he was young and had a penchant for getting himself into these kinds of situations, seventeen and in the police station on more than a few occasions. He'd come to think of those years as the dark years when he'd discovered the joys of fighting coupled with the knowledge that money could get a person out of almost every situation—if you had enough of it. Zeref always did and he was always willing to pay.

The interrogation room's door opened and Jellal and his partner came through.

"You should tell Captain Milkovich to consider a renovation," Natsu said in hello. "Zeref knows a girl that does a great job. He can even get you a discount price—"

Laxus said, "That sounds like bribery."

"Not at all."

"Then it sounds irrelevant," Jellal replied.

"Just trying to help," Natsu said.

Laxus tugged out one of the opposing chairs and dropped into it like he was too heavy for his legs to carry him anymore. "How about you help with something else, eh? Start by telling me why you and Mira were in a building with a dead body."

"Smooth segue, Detective Dreyar."

"I've been practicing," Laxus told him, and then waited impatiently for a response, tapping his thumb on the table.

_Tap, tap, tap._

Natsu didn't know what to say to make his situation any better.

_Tap, tap, tap._

"This'll go faster if you start talking."

_Tap, tap, tap._

"I was in the wrong place at the right time?" Natsu suggested finally, and then immediately deflected. "What were _you_ doing there? Were you following me?"

"We're asking the questions."

"You were, weren't you? Why else would you have been there? "Why, though? I haven't done anything."

"You're a Dragneel, that's reason enough," Laxus said.

"That sounds like harassment."

Jellal said, "It wasn't harassment. It was for your own safety."

"That's a good one," Natsu snorted. "Why would you suddenly care about that?"

"Because everyone who's bitten the dust has seen Mira first," Laxus said. "We thought there was a pattern."

"You think Mira's doing people in?"

Laxus _tap, tap, tapped_ again. The sound was grating. "We're running an investigation, we're looking into _everything_ and not accusing anyone of anything yet."

Jellal asked, "Who's building was that, Natsu? Our guys are having a hard time tracking down the owner."

"Dunno."

"You don't know or you're not going to tell us?"

"It's just an empty building I found."

"Just tonight?"

"No. I go there sometimes with _Tante_ Eileen's girls. It's quiet."

"Why wouldn't you just go to Somnium?"

" _Tante_ Eileen and I aren't on real good terms."

"Then why not try somewhere else? Black Glove or the Barrel? Daisy's?" Jellal asked.

"Literally _anywhere_ else?" Laxus pried.

"Because nowhere else has Mira Strauss, do they?" Natsu asked blandly.

That got Dreyar's jaw clenching. He kept it professional, though. How unfortunate. Natsu had hoped that he'd get a little twitchy, kick him out. "Mira was fired from the Barrel for the suspicion of doing freelance work. _Tante_ Eileen would do the same. It's a big risk for her to take when all the Matriarchs speak to one another and tell each other which girl's been turning tricks on the side. So why would she take that chance? Something here doesn't add up."

Jellal said, "Mira was under the impression that you knew where Lisanna was."

Natsu was a little surprised that she told them and a little disappointed, actually, though he rolled with the punches as smoothly as possible. "Yeah. I lied."

"Like you're lying now," Laxus said.

Natsu stared at him blankly.

"Okay. Let's talk about the body you found," Jellal said.

Laxus _tap, tap, tapped._ Natsu glowered. It only seemed to encourage him. "You know just about as much as I do. We showed up, walked in, and found that guy's body. Mira wanted to call the cops, I didn't."

Jellal leaned against the wall and asked, "That's an odd response, isn't it?"

"Considering I'm sitting in your interrogation room and I've been waiting to be questioned for hours, no, I don't think so."

"Do you hear yourself?" Laxus asked. "You didn't want to call in a stiff because it'd _inconvenience_ you? I think… I think that's obstruction of justice…"

Natsu rolled his eyes. "See? Doesn't matter _what_ I say, you've already decided you're going to be a cock."

Laxus sat forward. "Maybe because you're a fucking cluck."

"Can we _stop_ with the chicken references?" Jellal asked.

Laxus sat back and Natsu turned his scowl to Jellal, who had always seemed to be in control but looked on edge just then. Irritated. "Look, I wanted to make an anonymous tip and I knew Mira would want to call him." He nodded to Laxus. "We argued about it. You know the rest."

"The gun?"

Natsu feigned ignorance. "Gun?"

"The one we confiscated."

" _Right._ That gun. I found it on the floor by that guy. I don't know what I was thinking when I picked it up. Guess I was afraid the killer was still around."

"You honestly think I'm going to pull anyone's prints off that but yours?" Laxus asked.

"I don't know," Natsu said. "If the killer was smart, he'd be wearing gloves, though, wouldn't he?"

Laxus looked like he wanted to hit him.

The interrogation room door opened and a tall, reedy man wearing a suit and a pair of round glasses came through. He barely looked at Jellal leaning against the far wall and didn't really spare Laxus a glance, either. "Not another word, Mister Dragneel."

"You are?" Laxus asked.

"Cedrick Halliard, Mister Dragneel's lawyer," he announced.

Natsu sighed inwardly. Seemed like Zeref knew exactly where he was. That didn't take long.

"I demand that you release Mister Dragneel this instant."

Jellal said, "We're investigating a murder, he's a person of interest."

"Because he took a lady he fancied to a building and found a murdered man? Because…" he flipped through the small white binder he held, "He would rather make an anonymous tip? My client is well known in this city, he was afraid of the negative publicity and drawing the attention of your killer."

When Laxus got mad, there was a vein that popped on his forehead. "Okay. How about he was going to pay an escort for sex outside of a bordello?"

Halliard said, "I just spoke with the escort, she said she was there of her own volition and she and Natsu weren't entering a monetary contract."

"He told me—"

"Actually," Natsu said, "I only told you I was going to have sex with her. I didn't say anything about paying."

Halliard said, "It's totally legal to have relations with an escort outside of a bordello."

Natsu couldn't help but add, "You should know that, Detective."

Laxus smiled at Natsu in a way that promised pain, maybe not just then, but sometime in the future, he was going to pay for that remark.

Jellal said, "Very well, Mister Dragneel, you can go."

"I can find a way—" Laxus started and Jellal spoke over him.

"Just make yourself available for further questioning."

Natsu stood. "I hope you catch your killer, Detectives."

"And the asylum escapees, right?" Laxus tagged on grumpily.

"Yes. Them, too."

Mister Halliard guided him out of the interrogation room and into the hallways of the MPD, muttering, "Next time, try saying nothing at all, Mister Dragneel, and calling immediately instead of waiting for your brother to get word."

Natsu wasn't really paying attention, walking past the room where they were keeping Mira waiting. He could see through the glass windows and doors, she sat in her coat like she was cold, and twisted her once curled hair around and around her finger.

She was allowed her phone and scrolled through one app or another, though it seemed she was in tune with the outside world because she felt Natsu's eyes on her and looked up. She looked angry to see him leave. It wasn't likely he was going to get her forgiveness anytime soon, either. Her sister was missing with Kagura, Tante Eileen's man was dead, and now she was stuck in the police station until they decided that they were done with her.

The reception desk was kept in a wide open room, above which was the second storey, accessed through two winding stairways on either side of the room. Natsu looked up and found Captain Milkovich leaning against the bannister, looking down on her precinct, and he knew exactly how it was Zeref knew where to find him. What was she thinking as she spied him from the second floor? Was she sick to let him go or was she glad to have him out of her hair?

She lifted the corner of her lip in a poorly disguised snarl and Natsu had his answer. Natsu raised his voice to be heard above the quiet late-night bustle. "Working late, Ultear?"

She was stoic through the casual use of her name. "Everyone's working double-time until we have those girls in custody."

"What would we do without you?" Natsu muttered and got out while the getting was good.

Wind spat snowflakes across his cheeks upon entering the parking lot. He welcomed the cold and the open air, though he didn't welcome Jacob, the tall and brooding thug his brother hired for protection and errands and a number of other things, who stood in the center of the parking lot beneath the pale halo of a streetlamp.

"Stay out of trouble, Natsu," Mister Halliard warned. "And don't talk to anyone about this without going through me first. If the police contact you—"

"Yeah, I got it," Natsu said. "Not my first time on the merry-go-round."

He felt Mister Halliard's eyes on him for another moment, then the lawyer got into his cream-coloured Jaguar that his retainer got for him and peeled out of the parking lot. Then it was just Natsu and Jacob and a splattering of vehicles parked crookedly because the snow covered all of the lines.

Jacob opened the passenger's door to the BMW and waved Natsu inside.

"I'll walk, thanks," Natsu said.

"Mister Dragneel asked me to bring you home."

"And I said no, thanks," Natsu repeated.

"I insist."

"And I insist you fuck off," Natsu called over his shoulder.

Jacob grabbed his arm.

It wasn't smart to throw punches out front of the precinct. No one ever accused Natsu of being wise, though. He hit hard and he hit fast and he hit viciously, wanting to make sure that when Jacob went down, he stayed down long enough that Natsu could get out of there without Jacob watching his every move.

Natsu felt ridiculous, stretching up through the huge distance between them and hitting Jacob with everything he had, strength and body weight. He felt more ridiculous when it took four hits to Jacob's jaw just to make him waver on his feet.

Then Jacob started fighting back, using his long, spider-like limbs to his advantage, grabbing Natsu by the arm and swinging him against the BMW's door. His face knocked into the metal support beam and he saw stars. Then Jacob grabbed his bad arm, the one burned to a crisp and raised in ugly welts, and yanked it behind his back and Natsu thought he could throw up. He screamed and Jacob released him.

"Mister Dragneel—"

Natsu heaved a breath into his icy lungs and expelled it again and, clutching his arm, turned.

Jacob looked startled and concerned. "Did I break it?" Jacob's swollen cheek hindered his speaking so his words were slurred.

Natsu swung again. Jacob dodged with annoying fluidity and grabbed Natsu's arm. He yanked up the cuff and saw the edge of Natsu's poor nursing skills, the bandage soaked through now with moisture and puss. "What's happened?"

"Nothing you need to worry about." Natsu shoved him off.

"Your brother will disagree. I'll take you to the hospital. Get into the car."

He was a freak, taking a beating like that and then calmly asking Natsu to get into the car. It was time to change tactics. Natsu worked in another breath. "Are you armed?"

"Pardon?"

"A gun, Jacob. Do you have a gun?"

"'Course I do."

"Give it to me." He wasn't sure he was ever going to get his back. Of all the guns he owned, that was his favourite. It was his killing gun and the one he didn't have registered for that very reason. If they chose to run ballistics on it... Natsu thought, he'd find out just what kind of pull Zeref had in the MPD.

"If you're going to shoot me—"

Natsu held out his bruised hand. "Give me the fucking gun."

Jacob's loyalty came through and he pushed aside his trench coat to get the fired steel out. It was cold in Natsu's hot hand; Jacob had been waiting outside the car for some time. Natsu hefted the weight and adjusted his grip. It wasn't his vintage revolver, it was a modern thing with little style and a lot of functionality. He examined Jacob's long, beaky face and sallow skin.

"Crouch down here for a moment?" Natsu asked.

"Why?"

"Because I told you to," Natsu said. "Why the fuck do you think?"

Jacob looked at the gun nervously but bowed at the waist. Natsu squeezed the gun's grip and brought it down with all of his might. The edge of it cracked Jacob directly in the temple and with this new leverage, Jacob's eyes went dull and finally, he sank to his knees and then to his side, a limp sack of flour.

Natsu stuffed the gun into the waist of his pants and searched Jacob for the BMW's keys. Occasionally, he monitored the parking lot for spies. Everything was still, except for the snow quietly falling from the sky.

Jacob didn't have the keys. Natsu swallowed his swear and peeked into the car. There they were in the ignition. He pushed Jacob aside. The man groaned so Natsu kicked him in the head for good measure. That silenced him.

He used the BMW to get him back to Watcher Avenue and parked two blocks away from Tante Eileen's building. The place was crawling with uniforms still and likely would be for some time. Natsu avoided them all and went to his car. The first thing he did was drive around the city three times to make sure no one was following him and then he took his car to the safe house Tante Eileen promised Lisanna.

Natsu hammered on the door. It wasn't answered so he broke in, using his elbow to smash out one of the small panes of glass by the locking mechanism and then letting himself in. No alarm went off and no one appeared in the hallway with a baseball bat or a gun, ready to end him. Natsu checked the house top to bottom anyway and came up empty.

Panic was a tide pulling him out into a sea of uncertainty. Natsu swam against it with everything he had. Just because she didn't come here didn't mean anything. She could have gone somewhere else.

His next stop was a small family cabin on the outskirts of town. It had been years since he and his brother had set foot in this place together but when they were young, they'd come here often and vacation, which usually meant fishing and swimming.

Natsu didn't appreciate any of the building's old charm as he opened the front door and dragged in bootfuls of snow and dirt, leaving gritty puddles on the floor. He went to Zeref's bedroom where he'd put his stash of burner phones. When he'd hidden them in the ceiling above Zeref's closet months before his reasoning was simple: Zeref would tear Natsu's room apart looking for any signs of betrayal but chances were, he wouldn't check his own.

The phones were just where he left them. Natsu took one down and turned it on and punched in the number he knew off by heart. Tante Eileen answered on the first ring and she sounded impatient.

"What is it?"

"Is she there?" Natsu put everything back to the way it was as he spoke and went to the small washroom. The lights buzzed when he turned them on, the wiring as ancient as the cabin was.

"Definitely not."

"She's gone."

"Yes. I see that. It's all over the news."

"I need to find her," Natsu said. "I'm worried. Killing that guy wasn't part of the plan."

"Forgive me if I don't sound sympathetic. You were supposed to be responsible for her. Now a good resource is dead and there are police crawling all over my building, looking into who owned it. It's only a matter of time before they're at my door."

"I don't care about that."

"You should, Natsu because if this blows up in my face, I'm taking you down with me."

Natsu stopped trying to yank up his sleeve to see the mess his arm was. "Don't threaten me."

"Or what? Are you going to tell your brother what you've done?"

"He knows it was me that got Lisanna out."

"Does he know how you did it, Natsu?" _Tante_ Eileen asked in that mean way she had. "I have a flair for storytelling and I'd love to see the look on his face when he learns the truth."

Which meant he'd have to take immediate action. Natsu wasn't ready to kill Zeref yet. Nor could it look like exactly what it was. Zeref's death had to look like an accident, otherwise, there would be questions, upheaval and resistance. He wanted—needed—everything to happen smoothly.

"You're right. I'm sorry. Please. I need your help. I need to find Lisanna and I need to find her now."

"And I wanted Acnologia in my office making deals with me yesterday," Tante Eileen said. "You promise me things but never deliver."

"I've been busy."

"Fucking your crazy girlfriend and not paying for the deal you made."

Natsu had no excuse. "I'm focused now. The Mayor was killed at Somnium last night, right?"

"Yes."

"Then I think this is the time. We'll tell Acnologia that you're asking for help. I'll send him to you," Natsu promised. "Just get someone out there looking for Lisanna."

"You sound frantic, Natsu."

"Because either Kagura's gone off or Zeref's found out where Lisanna was or—"

She finished his sentence. "Or if he hasn't, he will. Gone's little brother's distraction."

"Find her." Natsu hung up without answering and busied his agitated mind by redressing his wound. It burned like a motherfucker. He used a liberal amount of Polysporin he found in the cabinet beneath the sink and it helped with the pain. He chewed a couple of oxies he found in the cabinet above the sink and that helped, too.

He re-wrapped everything with gauze and once that was done, he got back on the phone, this time to Acnologia. "She'll see you now."

"Thank you, Natsu," Acnologia said and hung up, never one for long, drawn-out conversations.

Natsu let the quiet fill up the house. It was then that he could hear wheels crunching over gravel.

Natsu turned out the lights and cocked his stolen gun. Then he waited with his back against the bathroom wall and breathed shallowly and quietly. He didn't hear the car door close. The cabin's doorknob was squeaky, though, and gave the person away when they entered.

A light flicked on in the living room. Papers rustled.

Natsu had never been patient and couldn't wait any longer. He came around the corner with his gun raised and found Zeref standing in the living room in his black trench coat, his fingers in the pages of a magazine. He looked up, past Natsu's pointed gun, and said, "Detective Fernandez found Jacob in the parking lot."

"Did he?"

"Beat up pretty bad. He had it in his head that it was you that did it, Natsu. Jacob set him straight, though, and told him it was some thugs."

"Good."

"It is good to have people loyal to you, isn't it?"

The way he asked made Natsu tip the barrel of the gun so it was pointed to the floor. He didn't have to try very hard to look both ashamed that he'd pointed the weapon at his brother—especially for so long—and annoyed. "He didn't want me leaving."

"And you wanted to get out and look for Lisanna."

"Do you know where she is?"

"Why would I?" Zeref asked.

"Because you don't approve. A set up like this would be a good way to get her out of the picture, wouldn't it?"

"Sure," Zeref agreed. "But I wasn't responsible for this. I think you know who was, though."

Natsu shook his head and Zeref nodded in contradiction. "Yes. Say it. Kagura Mikazuchi. She's a loose cannon."

"Kagura's never killed anyone," Natsu rebutted.

"Neither had I, once," Zeref said.

"Say you're right—"

"—I give it a fifty-fifty chance." Zeref was full of older brother superiority. It drove Natsu nuts when they were kids and that hadn't changed.

"—It didn't look like anyone else but that orderly was hurt." Natsu sounded childishly hopeful even to his own ears. "Lisanna is still probably okay."

Zeref softened almost imperceptivity. "You have no other leads?"

Natsu said, "This was the only place I could think she might come."

"It was a good thought. You guys used to spend a lot of time here in the summer," Zeref said. "I'm sure she'll turn up if she's not dead."

Natsu balled his hands into fists; it hurt enough that he had to loosen them again. How dissatisfying.

Zeref missed nothing. "What happened to your arm?"

"I burned it," Natsu said.

"Lighting up _Tante_ Eileen's warehouses."

Natsu met his statement with a stare, mind racing, calculating. Was this the right time? It was hard to know for sure. Everything else was moving so quickly, though, if he waited any longer, the opportunity would be gone, so when Zeref asked, "Why?" Natsu responded,

"So she'd ally with us."

"Why would she…" Zeref trailed off.

"I have it on good authority that Acnologia's going to offer her help, first, and when he does that, she'll be suspicious."

"You want her to think it was his people burning her down."

"Things are tense between them right now," Natsu said. "She'll think he's trying to snuff her out before she can get revenge for the way he handled Erza and that Cardinal business. When we swoop in, we'll look like the better option."

Zeref met his flawless lies with incredulity. "You're fucking nuts."

" _It'll work_ ," Natsu insisted.

"Yeah, maybe if she's _desperate_ ," Zeref said.

"She doesn't _have_ to be desperate if she thinks Acnologia's at her heels." It was hard to say exactly how powerful Acnologia was, just what kinds of resources he had at his fingertips—but whenever he had problems, he didn't have them for long. Staying out of his crosshairs was always the best course of action. "She'll want insurance and _we'll_ offer that."

Zeref sighed and pinched his nose. "When I asked earlier if you were burning down her warehouses, I thought it was because you were pissed off about Lisanna. But now you come at me with this. What am I supposed to say?"

"That it's a good idea?" Natsu suggested.

"No. Never."

"Why not?"

"Because it's a _bad_ plan!" Zeref nearly yelled.

"No—"

"Yes. Have you been spending too much time in the loonie bin? Or has the coke started rotting your brain? Is that it? Give me it."

Natsu pushed away Zeref's extended hand. " _Neither_ of those things."

"Then what the hell is going on with you? First this thing with Lisanna and now this? You're acting insane."

When he put it that way, Natsu couldn't help but see his actions as rash and erratic. "It made sense."

Zeref poked him in the chest with two pointy fingers. "It didn't fucking make sense and if you came to me _first,_ like you should have, I would have told you that."

Natsu rubbed his chest. "If I came to you first, you never would have agreed."

"Right. I wouldn't. Because it's _crazy_."

"It's not. _Listen._ I've already been in talks with Eileen. She's spooked with those bodies winding up outside her place—"

"No." Zeref shook his head. " _Don't_ tell me those were left by you."

"No." When he killed someone, they got a bullet and that was that. None of this poisoning them garbage. "I'm just taking advantage of a tense situation."

"And you just let bygones be bygones, eh?" Zeref scrutinized him in that way he had. He knew Natsu almost better than Natsu knew himself. Meaning he knew Natsu didn't want to take the Lisanna thing lying down.

"No."

"Then what? When you're ready, you'll kill her?"

"It'll be easier to do once I'm on friendly terms with her again."

"Hell. You're serious." Zeref's fingers twitched into his hair, pushing it back from his forehead.

"Yes. Call her. Ask her to meet," Natsu said.

"If killing her's that important, we'll put out a contract, let someone else take care of it."

"No. _I_ want to be the one to do it," Natsu said fervently. "Just _call_ her." He added more quietly, "Do this for me and I'll consider your slate clean."

Zeref got very serious and his jaw muscle flexed. "I knew you were still mad."

"Of course I'm fucking mad. You and that _bitch_ framed Lisanna for murder!" Natsu seethed. He got a hold of himself in the next breath. "But I know whose idea it was in the first place."

Would Zeref buy that _planning_ it all was a worse crime than giving Mira a gun and paying off the hospital security? Worse than then taking the gun and placing it in the commuter locker at the bus station for the police to find?

"I know who gave Lisanna the phone and the number to call the police. I know who coached her through exactly what to say," Natsu added last and poured on the manipulation. "Help me get revenge and when I have the wedding I was supposed to have years ago my big brother will still be the best man."

Natsu thought Zeref couldn't help but take the bait. When seeing sense and threats didn't work on his hard-headed little brother, Zeref's signature move was biding his time. He'd wait until Lisanna was found. Then he'd wait again. Weeks, months, years. However long it took for her to have an accident or to suddenly decide that she was in love with someone else. Natsu would wake up one morning and she, and all the baggage she brought would be gone.

Natsu still felt relief when Zeref asked, "You said Eileen's already considering an ally in us?"

"Yeah," Natsu said.

"And Acnologia's made his pass?"

"He will by morning," Natsu assured him.

"That's good information?"

"Yeah."

"You're _sure_?"

" _Yes_ ," Natsu said.

"Okay." Zeref waved Natsu close and wrapped his arm around his shoulder. "Once this is through, you cut back on the drugs and the drinking and stop getting arrested with _Tante_ Eileen's whores. You stop being a mental case, Natsu, and you start being my brother again, right?"

He hesitated; Zeref would expect him to. "Okay," he said eventually. "Okay. I will."

"Good. And we go to the hospital. Your fucking arm's going to fall off."

"It's fine."

He was immovable. "Those are my conditions."

Natsu sighed. "Alright."

Zeref clapped his shoulder. "I'll make a few calls and have the city combed for Lisanna."

"Make sure to ask in the hospitals," Natsu added. "The ones that aren't aboveboard, too."

"She's been in psych wards and asylums for years, Natsu, you think she's going to know anything about those?"

"I want everywhere checked," Natsu said with conviction. "Or no deal."

Zeref grumbled as he pulled out his phone. "Come on. Lock this place up and let's go."

* * *

Zeref dragged Natsu to the hospital and got treatment for his arm—the removal of dead skin, slathering ointments, gauze that was loosely bound around the area, and a bag full of pills, some antibiotics, some pain relief, the good stuff that made you numb. Natsu refused them. He wanted to think as clearly as he could when the morning came. Which also meant sleep came in fits and spurts.

When worry wasn't keeping him from sleep, he was rolling over on his arm and waking himself up. Most of the time, he didn't even mind, the pain took him from dreams full of terrible things. The worst part was that they always started out sweet.

He'd be back in _Tante_ Eileen's building, Lisanna on his lap again. She'd smile and it'd be heavy only with desire. And then Kagura would join. Again, at first, it was okay. She only wanted to touch Lisanna and Natsu thought that could be alright, he liked to be able to sit back and watch Lisanna's back arch like that.

And then Kagura would smile and that smile would put an idea in Lisanna's head, and she would start to scratch. Herself, and then Natsu when he tried to get her to stop. Every time, she turned vicious in a blink and stuffed the pillow over his face. Every time, Natsu found that it didn't _matter_ that Lisanna was smaller than him, he couldn't fight her off.

The last time he woke soaked in sweat with a nauseous stomach, it was to his phone buzzing. He turned and found it on his dresser with only ten percent of the battery left. He'd forgotten to plug it in last night.

On the screen was a text message from an unknown number. It said only, _I'm okay._

All of his grogginess disappeared immediately. Natsu texted back _where are you?_

The reply was sent and read, but there was no response. Natsu tried again. _I'm going to come get you._

No response.

_Tell me where you are._

Nothing again.

_Lisanna_. _Please. Tell me where you are._

The last one went through but wasn't read. Natsu squeezed his phone so tight, he was afraid of breaking it. He typed in last, _Zeref's guys are looking for you. Don't trust anyone._

Footsteps shuffled down the hall and a light tapping came on Natsu's door. "Are you awake?"

Natsu put his phone down and sat up. "Yeah."

Zeref opened it up like that was permission enough and poked his head in. "You look like shit."

"I didn't sleep well."

"Did you want to sit this one out?"

It took Natsu a moment to get with the program. Eileen. They were going to see Eileen. "No. I'm good. I want to be there."

"Alright."

"Any news on Lisanna?" Natsu asked.

"Nothing yet," Zeref said.

Not that he trusted Zeref to be truthful. "Give me a few. I need to shower and get dressed."

"Don't get your arm wet," Zeref said, reminding Natsu of the brother he used to be. He left before Natsu could lose any of his resolve.

In the bathroom, Natsu made another call, this one to an old friend.

"Mech's Mex. Can I take your order?"

"Wall, it's Natsu," Natsu said quietly. "I need you to do something for me and I need you to keep it between us." If anyone could trace Lisanna's text, it was Wall Eehto.


	12. Chapter 12

 

**_XII: Juvia_ **

Juvia hadn't been asleep for very long when _Tante_ Erza's door opened and another lady draped in scarlet entered. _Tante_ Erza sat up in bed, hair thick and messy ropes on her bare skin, and faced down her mother with sleepy indignation.

"What are you doing?"

_Tante_ Eileen grabbed the blankets and twitched them back and took Juvia's hand. Juvia expected pain to follow but _Tante_ Eileen was right, she'd never hit Juvia before, it wasn't really her thing. "I need Juvia."

"For what?"

"Entertainment."

"Mother, it's—" _Tante_ Erza squinted at the bedside clock. "Too early."

Much, much too early. Juvia's head was a webby mess; she was so tired. _Tante_ Eileen didn't _care_ , though. "I recognize that but not everyone's business is nighttime pleasure and this can't wait."

"Who is here?"

_Tante_ Eileen said, "Acnologia," and Erza's indignation smoothed for wariness. "Why?"

_Tante_ Eileen's face pulled into a not real smile. "Business."

Erza started to get up. _Tante_ Eileen held out her hand. "No need, I have it covered."

"But—"

"We'll talk about it afterwards."

Juvia's hand was pulled. She rose from _Tante_ Erza's bed and was handed the pale blue robe she'd entered with early that morning. Juvia pulled it on but left the tie undone around her waist. She stole one last look back at Erza before _Tante_ Eileen guided her out of the room and was given a reassuring look. Juvia relaxed some, trusting Erza to take care of her.

_Tante_ Eileen brought Juvia to her own room and shut the door. "Take off the robe."

Juvia did as she was told. "Will I be singing?"

"No."

"Then—"

"I'm sending you home with Acnologia," _Tante_ Eileen said.

"For the day?"

"For as long as he wants you there."

"What if he doesn't? Want me there, that is?"

"That's the job, Juvia. You're to make sure he does." _Tante_ Eileen started prowling around, assessing Juvia with a skilled eye, taking in any scars she'd accumulated, jutting bones, and bruises, of which there was only one, on her backside where Erza had pressed her thumb in a little too hard that morning.

_Tante_ Eileen nodded once, seemingly satisfied.

Someone rapped on the door. "Come."

Juvia remained facing forward with her chin held high when Gildarts entered with an article of clothing in a long, black zip-up bag. _Tante_ Eileen pulled from its depths a thin white dress. It was soft-looking and immodest, deeply cut and flowy. She undid the back and held it out for Juvia and Juvia stepped into it. Gildarts supplied a pair of tall, grey boots, dropping them to the ground in front of her. Juvia stepped into those, too, while the back of her dress got zipped up.

Tante Eileen came to her front and looked at her, adjusting her hair around her shoulders and tugging the dress into the right spot. "There. What do you think, Gildarts?"

"Looks good," he said simply and leaned back against the wall where he took a cigarette from a pack in his pocket and sparked it up. Juvia watched him exhale. He offered her the pack; she shook her head. One vice was the most she could handle.

_Tante_ Eileen waved her to the vanity and Juvia sat as primly as she was able. Every muscle felt a bit spongy and uncoordinated. _Tante_ Eileen grabbed the makeup from the drawers and started applying it. Each stroke of her fingers was skilled; she'd done this more times than Juvia could count.

Her face was wiped with something to take away the bruises beneath her eyes and then multiple layers of foundation and concealer were added, and blush, and a swipe of mascara that made her eyelashes seem impossibly dark and long, and lastly, a coat of clear lip gloss. It was a lot of work to wear your makeup 'natural'. Especially when you'd had one too many sleepless nights.

"Don't look so stressed, kid. You'll be alright," Gildarts said.

His words didn't pacify Juvia. Acnologia had armadas of beautiful women waiting to dirty his sheets, it seemed unlikely that he'd want her.

_Tante_ Eileen said, "I know you'll charm him with your tongue."

"Can I ask what this is about?"

"He will be coming here to make a business deal. It's only polite that we make an exchange," Gildarts said.

"Do you want me to spy?" Juvia asked.

_Tante_ Eileen said, "Did I say that?"

"No."

"No," she confirmed, "And if you were smart, you wouldn't repeat that, either, Juvia. I've known Acnologia a long time and he's never been a patient or lenient man. Unlike some of us, he'd never tolerate a spy."

"Yes, _Tante_ ," Juvia intoned.

"Good." _Tante_ Eileen made a large curl in the front of Juvia's hair.

Juvia met her eyes in the mirror. "Am I to do everything he asks?"

"He's a special customer," _Tante_ Eileen said, "Everything within reason."

" _Tante_ Erza was going to take me out later this afternoon—"

"She'll find another misfit to fill her bed with while you're gone, I'm sure," _Tante_ Eileen said in such a way that made Juvia think she didn't approve of Erza's recent choice in partners.

_Tante_ Eileen made one last large curl in Juvia's hair and then leaned back to admire her handiwork. "Perfect. Come." She took Juvia's hand and pulled her to her feet.

"What kind of man is he? Acnologia?"

"Not a very good one." _Tante_ Eileen walked through the door Gildarts held for her. "Though I imagine he's a sight better than the trash you've been rolling with in the Stacks."

Juvia looked sideways at Gildarts, wondering if he did what _Tante_ Eileen said he was going to and took care of the man with the van. Her mind travelled further. What did it take to kill and how was it that what he did was more acceptable than what Magnolia's resident poisoner was doing?

Juvia promptly left the ethics of it all behind; her moral compass's needle never pointed true north anyway.

_Tante_ Eileen clopped down the stairs at a brisk pace and swung through the bar empty of everyone minus the daytime cleaner, and into her office. "Stand by the bookshelf there," she pointed behind a small settee she used for special company. "And you, Gildarts, will be behind me."

Juvia watched as she positioned him, not too far away from her plush chair in case anything happened but not close enough that Acnologia might guess that Gildarts warmed her bed. It used to be an infrequent thing, she thought, but Juvia had seen Gildarts slip into _Tante_ Eileen's room more and more often lately. She told no one of her discovery; information was power and so was secrets.

Tante Eileen flopped back in her chair and plucked up a lock of red, red hair, twisting it thoughtfully in her fingers. "I don't think I should have to say, but anything you hear in this room today is strictly confidential."

"Yes, _Tante_ ," Juvia said.

"And Kyouka... you shouldn't talk about her. At all. She is my problem and I will retrieve her without Acnologia's aid." She looked very severe then, daring Juvia to argue. She would never.

"Of course, Tante."

Tante Eileen's lips pursed. "In fact, you probably shouldn't speak at all unless he asks something of you directly."

"Okay." Juvia looked at Tante Eileen's cough drop coloured necklace resting between her elevated breasts instead of meeting her eyes.

"He will likely offer you drugs when you return home with him," Tante Eileen said bluntly. "You won't have to take them, obviously, and I don't think he'll make you, but you should be prepared."

She knew, of course. Whatever Acnologia didn't make off legitimate businesses, he made from protection levies and drug sales. It was still nice to be warned. "Thank you."

"Good. Now stand up straight but try not to look stiff. Smile when he comes in. Acnologia appreciates eye contact, so don't be shy."

"Yes."

Tante Eileen sat back in her chair, seemingly satisfied, and pulled a ledger from her desk drawer. Juvia saw _Somnium_ on the top but not much else from her position.

She listened to the _Tante's_ pen scratch over the paper and to the clock tick, tick on the wall. Minutes passed. Gildarts opened a window and smoked a cigarette without asking, and Tante Eileen didn't scold him for it; another peculiarity. Juvia listened to the tobacco sizzle and pop, and Gildarts' exhale. Cold air was pushed in through the window and curled around her legs. Juvia shivered but it felt nice. It helped her wake up and get in the right mindset for this kind of work. She wasn't sure _why Tante_ Eileen chose her, but she had and she was determined not to mess it up.

Tires crunched over the driveway and Gildarts folded his cigarette into an ashtray and closed the window, then undid the button in his jacket, giving himself easy access to the gun on his hip. Tante Eileen put her pen and paper away and folded her hands in front of her on the desk. Juvia adjusted her stance and fluffed her hair.

Moments passed where distantly, Juvia could hear Somnium's front door open and Angel's voice. Another followed hers, deep and resonating. Then footsteps. The office door was knocked on. _Tante_ Eileen waited a moment, then breathed in deeply. "Enter."

Angel pushed open the door and Acnologia came through. He carried a cane with him today. The way he walked suggested that it was an accessory and not a necessity. He came to _Tante_ Eileen, who stood, and took her hand. " _Buongiorno, Tante."_

"Good morning to you, too," Eileen said. Gildarts mimicked her.

Acnologia looked over his shoulder to Juvia. _"Buongiorno,_ " she mumbled because it seemed like the right thing to do, despite _Tante_ Eileen's warning to remain silent.

Acnologia raised his eyebrow but said nothing else, returning his attention to Eileen. She took a teapot off the desk and offered it to him. Acnologia shook his head and sat on the settee in front of Juvia. "No, thank you."

Eileen lowered into her seat as well. "Thank you, Angel." Angel backed out without a word and closed the door. _Tante_ Eileen said to Acnologia, "I was surprised to hear from Natsu that you wanted to meet."

"Were you?" Acnologia answered. "We've been friendly in the past."

"We've also been hostile."

"Yes. That's business, though, isn't it?"

"Yes."

They spoke more. Most of it petered off into the background, niceties and the like. Juvia's mind wandered. She tried to see herself beneath Acnologia's frame on his king-sized bed in his mansion surrounded by paraphernalia and luxury and just couldn't. He didn't seem like the kind of man that took his whores to bed. Or the kind of man to _keep_ whores, really. He was an enigma. She didn't understand much about him other than he was somehow both cruel and fair and fast-acting. He tolerated no disloyalty amongst his people.

The door burst open, startling Juvia from her thoughts, and Erza came through. She'd taken the time to put on a grey long-sleeved shirt and tucked it into a pair of black slacks. "Sorry, I'm late." She threw herself down on the settee beside Acnologia. When all eyes turned to her, she smiled. "Continue."

_Tante_ Eileen's mouth pressed flat. She did not want Erza in there, that much was obvious, but she was too proud to kick her out. "Right. As I was saying, you, and it seems everyone else now, are aware of my situation. I've had two of my warehouses burned to the ground, and now all of these murders on Somnium's front. I'm losing customers."

"We hate asking for help," Erza tagged on unnecessarily; whether the statement was made for her mother or Acnologia was unclear, though it was Acnologia that answered.

"When I first came to this city, I was proud and did not like to ask for help, either."

"I've been told by those I trust that that sometimes, it's a necessity," _Tante_ Eileen looked back over her shoulder to Gildarts. He remained stone-faced, hands clasped in front of his shining Michael Jackson _Dangerous World Tour_ belt buckle.

"Your advisers are wise, though unusual, I must say," Acnologia commented.

"Natsu, you mean?" _Tante_ Eileen said. "I don't think it's unusual at all. He hates his brother."

"Because of the business with his fiancé," Acnologia said.

"I suppose. Now he's trying to find a place for himself. He's reached out to several people, as I understand."

"Love," Acnologia muttered. "Only it has the force to turn family on family."

"So what is your grand solution to our grand problem?" Erza butted in, no-nonsense and unfanciful, earning herself a glare from her mother that Acnologia either did not see or ignored.

Acnologia straightened and locked her gaze. "I offer what I offer all of my underlings. Protection."

"Underlings?"

"Should I have said business associates? Apologies," Acnologia said glibly. "Regardless what we call you, my offer remains the same."

"Protection at a premium price?" Erza said.

"Discount, for the lovely _Tante_ Eileen."

" _Free_ you mean," _Tante_ Eileen said.

"Nothing is _free_ ," Acnologia denied.

"I've already paid." _Tante_ Eileen lifted her finger, holding off whatever Acnologia was about to say. "You owe me and my daughter a debt after the Cardinal business."

"I gave her a way out, that debt is paid."

"You gave her a knife in a room full of gun-holding murderers."

"That was more than what she had before."

Juvia prepared herself for blood to spill, _Tante_ Eileen was gripping her fingers together so damn tightly. Then she breathed in deeply, and, though the tension never fled from her shoulders, she seemed more in control. "Then how about this. I open up to you the docks on the west side of Fairy Lake and give to you my connections in Stella. You'll supply them with your product in exchange for the pull you have on the advertising side of things."

Acnologia drummed his fingers on his leg. "I would have thought you'd want more men protecting your business, that way you can preserve the customers you already have."

_Tante_ Eileen glanced up at the ceiling while she considered his words. "Yes. Yes, you're right. I do need more people. I don't need them at Somnium, though. People _think_ they need to see armed men loitering around to make them feel safe when they enter my establishment, but the truth is, their very presence will make people uneasy. Their thinking starts to change from _I need more guns around me to feel safe_ to _why am I at a place where I need guns to feel this way_. They'll head to Daisy's or Black Glove or the Barrel."

"There are ways to fix that," Acnologia said. "Have the best of both worlds."

"Oh?"

"Take a page out of your arsonist's book," he said candidly.

Juvia suppressed her surprise. Erza, though, was not so good at it, asking heatedly, "And burn those places to the ground?"

"You'd have no competition, would you?"

"The media would go _wild._ Another war on prostitution, they'd say. The Cardinal striking from the grave. Another fucking cleansing."

"Of course, the goal wouldn't be to kill the whores," Acnologia rebutted.

"Then how do you suppose we carry this out, huh?" Erza asked.

"A bomb threat. Those places would be evacuated, and once they've been cleared," he brought his hands together in front of his eyes and pushed them apart dramatically like an explosion was held between his palms. " _Boom._ "

"What about the police that go _into_ that building?" Erza asked. "You know they're going to send in a bomb squad."

"Why do you worry about the police? They are a bacterium, a hundred more are waiting to take their place."

Juvia _felt_ Erza bristle. She also felt Erza's anxiety. Whatever it was she had happening with her homicide detective, she was uncomfortable with it. Juvia understood. She didn't like being in love with Gray; Erza must have felt similarly.

"Did I insult you?" Acnologia asked; there was a facetious note to his voice. He was exactly aware of what he'd done.

Erza put herself together. "I just think something like this is careless. We're on good terms with the police now and—"

"If you call good terms them coming into your establishment whenever they see fit, tossing the place and leaving it in disarray," Acnologia said.

Eileen sat up straighter. "Other men wouldn't cut off a _Tante_."

"Other men don't own half of Magnolia," Acnologia said with that same glib tone. Eileen's fingers clenched tighter again. Juvia tensed. Acnologia said, "Will you be angry at me for speaking the truth?" He stood and came around the settee to Juvia's side and shifted his gaze between her and the map behind her. " _Bellezza_ , do you know which part of the city your _Tante_ controls?"

"Yes," Juvia said. Vaguely, anyway.

"Show us."

Juvia met _Tante_ Eileen's eye before continuing. She didn't blink or move, perhaps afraid of ruining her poker face, though her fingers drummed in irritation. Juvia took her silence as a _go ahead_ and touched the map's western waterfront, swooping her hand from the docks on the northwest side down, passing by the fringe of the upper-middle-class, to the hospitals and low-income housing and the fringe of the Stacks.

"Good. And which part does Zeref control?"

Juvia moved from the northeast quadrant, passing by rich cottage country, the highways out of the city, and one of the main ports to get to Alvarez.

"Excellent. Now, which do I own?"

"This." Juvia let her hand brush by the bottom of the map.

"And what's there?"

"Most of Magnolia's population," she stated.

"Yes. Most of Magnolia's population. Most of her businesses pay levies to me and those that don't aren't worth collecting from. Any hotel you pass, any bar, any bordello, any strip joint, any restaurant, any—"

"I get the picture," _Tante_ Eileen said. "You're powerful. Good. You say you can keep us safe. Forgive me if I'm skeptical, though, because I _am._ Relying on others to keep us safe has been a mission in failure."

"You've never had anyone worthy of the task," Acnologia said smoothly.

Other women would have paused or smiled. _Tante_ Eileen got annoyed. "The _mayor_ was killed behind my bordello and I'm a little fucking peaky about it. I'm interested in results, not promises."

"Mayor Neekis' death was bad business," Acnologia agreed.

"The press has been coming around."

"It would be a good thing to suddenly have a friend in that line of business then, wouldn't it? You're reluctant to give over much, I understand. So maybe we could start out slow. I'll take care of that."

Tante Eileen stilled her fidgeting. "You can call them off?"

"I can do better than that. I can make the headlines read whatever I wish," Acnologia said. "If you let me help you."

"For a minimal fee."

"We can waive that today. Let me show you what kind of influence I have and if you are impressed, we will move forward and discuss terms."

Juvia knew that look in his eye. Acnologia was a greedy man and he would do whatever was necessary to impress her to gain her business. And it seemed _Tante_ Eileen was allowing for it.

"That sounds acceptable. Will you allow me to show you our hospitality then, as well?"

"What did you have in mind?"

"Bring my girl home with you and allow her to assist you?"

Erza's fingers cinched in her slacks. The displeased tell was subtle but it didn't escape Acnologia's notice. He'd been difficult to get an exact read on until then but he looked around and met Juvia's eyes and she knew. He didn't want whores, he didn't really care, but he wanted what was going to make the biggest impact on those he dealt with, and currently, that was a whore that spoke his native tongue.

"What is your name?"

"Juvia," she answered.

"Juvia, _vuoi venire a casa con me_?" he asked

" _Si, signore_ ," she replied similarily. His hard expression softened just a touch.

"Very well. I will take your girl and contact the media and we'll speak again shortly." He stood from the settee and offered Juvia his arm. She took it tentatively. Through the sleeve of his suit, she could feel his keloid scars, the ones he'd packed with ash again and again, then tattooed pale blue. It made him an exotic beauty.

She felt a little bit giddy walking out of Somnium with him, stopping only to grab her coat, and getting into the back of his sleek-looking car. Warm air blasted through the heating vents and fended off Winter's chill.

"Are you from the north?" Acnologia asked once the doors were closed and his driver started forward.

"My mother was, yes," Juvia said.

"Then how did you end up here?"

"She had me out of wedlock. Her family was ashamed. She left for Magnolia and married a foreigner. He never wanted a daughter, though, and when she died, I was on my own." When she put it like that, it was disturbing how similarly she'd followed in her mother's footsteps. The only difference was Gray had wanted to marry her; she hadn't wanted to marry him. Aria had someone stable, though. Gray was a good father, at least.

"Hm. You know, I lied to your _Tante_ ," Acnologia said.

Juvia met his eyes. They were beautiful, bottomless and grey and cold in the same way Gray's were, sometimes. She felt a tug low in her belly and wasn't sure if it was for the man before her or the one that hated her, living across town. "About?"

"There were times when I could have used the help of my colleagues. Hard times, you understand?"

"Yes."

"But I never accepted their help. I knew it would make me seem weak."

Juvia heard herself say, "Thinking _Tante_ Eileen is weak would be a mistake."

"Which is what I thought, too. She does enjoy her games, doesn't she?"

She felt like she was being cornered but could find no way to deny him. "Yes."

"Is she playing a game now, Juvia?"

" _Tante_ Eileen doesn't tell me much."

"No?"

"No. She doesn't like me very much," Juvia admitted.

"Yet you remain at Somnium?"

"Most places won't take a girl with dependencies."

"Cocaine?"

"Fentanyl." There was no sense lying; she felt like, despite the makeup, it was something that could clearly be seen.

"It's a fine line to tread." Acnologia almost sounded kind then.

"Yes."

" _Tante_ Eileen generally doesn't tolerate girls with dependencies, either, you know," Acnologia mused. "So what is it that's so special about you?"

Juvia had no illusions, she was kept first because _Tante_ Eileen didn't know what to do with her, and then later because she was a weapon against Kyouka.

_And now after Kyouka is gone?_ She thought the _Tante_ would have killed her that day if it wasn't for Erza's arrival and then the appearance of the two detectives. _Tante_ Eileen had returned upstairs with Gildarts after the detectives left and she seemed calmer. Aloof and cold. This morning was the first time she'd spoken to Juvia since then.

"Is it _Tante_ Erza?" Acnologia inquired.

"Pardon?"

"Is that why you remain? She seemed concerned for you this morning."

Juvia cleared her throat. "Yes. Likely. _Tante_ Erza is…"

"Kinder than her mother."

"No." Just mean in different ways.

The car slowed and the inquisition ceased. Juvia looked out the window and monitored their ascent up a long, curling driveway. What waited at the top wasn't really what she'd expected, a small brick cabin, quaint and trimmed with forest green-coloured shutters, an A-frame roof, large windows through which Juvia could see a fire roaring in the hearth.

"This is where you live?"

"Sometimes."

Of course, he'd have more than one house.

The car rolled to a stop at the front walk. Juvia waited for Acnologia to get out and slid out his side. Wind grabbed the bottom of her coat and pushed it against her legs. Her toes were cold in no time. Her boots were tall but they were thin.

The door was silent on its hinges, opening into a home that smelled like leather and cigar smoke. The air was fire-dry and warm and Juvia breathed in deeply, relishing it. The cottage was decorated nicely, though it didn't really look _lived_ in. There were no family photos or any mess of any kind.

To the right was the living room. A leather couch sat in front of a burnished wooden coffee table and in front of that was the hearth, and to the right was a rustic kitchen. Directly in front of them were stairs that led up to what Juvia assumed was bedrooms.

Acnologia's charm shifted once the doors were closed and they were alone. He moved in quick steps, taking off his jacket and holding his hand out for Juvia's as well, throwing them both over the back of a leather armchair.

"You have a lovely home."

"Yes."

Juvia chewed her cheek, wondering what she should say next. Her mind was blank. She started to take off her boots. Acnologia said, "Leave them."

"Okay."

"Drink?" It was early but he took a decanter of something golden brown off the wooden stand by the fireplace and two tumblers.

"Thank you." Juvia crossed the room and took the one he offered. When she swallowed it back, it burned unpleasantly all the way down her throat and into her empty stomach. Her mouth watered. She swallowed three times before the feeling passed.

Acnologia brought his drink to the couch and sat down on the centre cushion. "Does she expect you to spy on me?"

Juvia took another swallow before she answered. "I asked her that as well."

"And?"

"And, _Tante_ Eileen said that you would kill me if I did. My only purpose here is to entertain you."

"And to speak to me in my native tongue. To soften my heart?"

"I'm not sure _Tante_ Eileen is convinced that you have one to soften."

He quarter-smiled and sat forward to rummage through the coffee table's drawer. Juvia recognized the colour of gunmetal and tensed, thinking that this was it, this was how _Tante_ Eileen deigned to get rid of her, but instead of coming out with the pistol, Acnologia brought out a light blue vial filled with white powder and a mirror. He worked efficiently, tapping out a modest line and crushing it up with a razor. It got snorted back without the aid of any glass straws. He offered some to Juvia, as well. She hesitated.

"It's awkward for both of us. Have some."

Juvia withheld her sigh and set her glass down.

It was different than fentanyl and not. It didn't make her head whirl as much. It made her body feel weightless but like it was still _there._ She loved it immediately. And knew if she let herself, she'd hate it, as well. Acnologia only gave her a small amount, though, and things almost seemed manageable.

Juvia sniffled; her throat was burning again. "Now what?"

Acnologia took her hand and pulled her in front of him. "Stand here. Take your dress off."

"Okay."

"And speak to me, but not in this tongue."

"And say what?"

"Anything."

He wasn't the first to request talk; sometimes, it eased the tension, sometimes, it ended up being ridiculous. Acnologia seemed to like to hear his mother tongue, though.

It had been a long time since Juvia had spoken the first language her mother had taught her but she fell into it with growing ease. When she got a word wrong, Acnologia repeated it correctly and she fixed her pronunciation. He stopped doing that so much once she'd gotten the sleeves of her dress off and her breasts were out. He quieted almost completely when the fabric was around Juvia's feet and she was free to turn for him, letting him look at her completely nude, save for her boots.

He did not touch her. Juvia had to initialize everything. There were times when she wondered if he wanted this at all. His eyes would cling to her breasts, though, or her hips, and he'd pulse in his pants and she'd be encouraged.

She took her time, leaning forward and undoing the tight weave in his hair. It smelled citrusy and was still damp. She undid his shirt. His chest was chiselled and full of more tattooed keloid scars. She touched one and whispered, " _Bello_." He gave no indication that he'd heard her. Juvia continued on her journey, undoing his pants and inching them down enough that he was still trapped in the fabric but it wouldn't take much to get him out.

She started with a kiss on his jaw and moved toward his mouth. He didn't turn from her so she thought it was okay to meet his lips. He kissed like he spoke, precisely and eloquently and slowly. He still didn't touch her. Juvia let his lips go to give him attention elsewhere.

His chest was much warmer than her lips. She could feel his heart through his skin, beating faster with cocaine in his veins. She counted the beats until she was beyond the point that she could feel it.

The hardwood floor under Juvia's knees was much cooler than the air. It helped her focus as she finally released Acnologia from his pants. He stood at attention and like his chest, this part of his body was much warmer than Juvia's lips. She put one closed-mouth kiss at the base, then took a condom out of the lining of her boot and put it on for him. He leaned back and his eyes closed.

"Keep speaking to me."

" _Si_ ," Juvia responded and began again between presses of her lips and flicks of her tongue. He took in a deep breath and finally began reacting, pushing up into her mouth in more and more exaggerated strokes the further it went on. His breathing changed and so did his demeanor. He moved suddenly. Juvia half-expected to hurt but he'd gone diving into the stand beside the couch and pulled out a wide variety of toys. He seemed most interested in the handcuffs and the dildo.

He snapped the cuffs on Juvia's wrists. She was nervous but hid it. No one liked to fuck a nervous whore.

Acnologia then lifted his hips off the couch and got all the way out of his pants. He spread his legs and handed her the dildo and she caught onto his meaning. She took it and made sure he was well-worked in before she began.

* * *

It was almost dark. Acnologia had gone upstairs to shower and hadn't come back down and Juvia didn't want to go looking for him just in case he wanted to be alone. She tried her phone. It was dead. A glance outside revealed an empty driveway and a landscape cast in an orange glow.

She wanted to go home. She was hungry and tired and starting to shake now that the drugs were out of her system. It wasn't fentanyl but it was still a bad idea.

Juvia dressed, pulling on her boots and coat lastly. She took one last look upstairs and thought she heard the rhythmic sounds of breathing and figured that he was asleep. The door opened just as quietly as it had earlier.

It was colder now. Juvia retreated into her hood and walked briskly. The cottage was out of the way of Magnolia's city core but it wasn't very far. She was looking at towering apartment buildings and gutter trash in ten minutes and getting frozen by cars whizzing by.

She avoided almost everyone's eye as she passed the Stacks. Some people catcalled to her from cars, others smoked cigarettes in silence, leaning up against degrading buildings. Some tried to sell her drugs. Their offers made a chasm of want open in her belly. She bit her cheek hard and went through all the reasons she _shouldn't_ stop. The top of that list was a lack of money and if she handed out favours for a hit and _Tante_ Eileen found out… she'd be out of a job faster than she could blink.

Still, though. The thought was tempting. She kept putting in little caveats. Like, _Tante_ Eileen was likely so busy, she wouldn't know what Juvia was doing. She still thought Juvia was with Acnologia. She wouldn't have _sex_ with anyone. She'd just show them some stuff, or get them off, or—

Juvia watched street names pass by. Jaquard, West Street, Middle Street, Moore, and lastly, Huntsman. She looked down that one, taking in the slumping houses and derelict buildings, and felt her heart palpitate double-fold. Huntsman was renowned for its dealers. And it was also the street named in the note left on Juvia's bed.

Though it hadn't been signed, Juvia was _sure_ that it had been from Kyouka. Or almost sure. There had been no address on the note and the meeting day had come and gone but Juvia thought if she started down that road, Kyouka would be waiting for her. Would she want to punish her for not trying to set her free? Would she forgive her?

_You should tell her to fuck off._ Really. She should. She had _Tante_ Erza now.

Her feet started moving. Houses passed. Juvia couldn't see into any of them, their windows were either covered in posters or flags or bedsheets. They all had things in common—driveways weren't shovelled, or the ones that were lacked stone or asphalt, only bare dirt beneath grey snow; rundown cars that hadn't moved for years hulked on lawns or by the sidewalk, porches sagged and siding was stained or, in some cases, missing.

She was nearly at the end of the street when she felt very strongly that she was being watched. The sensation made her skin crawl. She addressed the houses on the left and right side of the street and focused on a small white stucco house. A set of black drapes twitched aside. Someone had been watching her. Then the front door swung open in invitation. The space beyond was dark black, a maw waiting to swallow her whole.

Juvia squinted, trying to see if anyone waited in the shadows but couldn't tell from where she stood.

_So go over._

Feeling possessed, Juvia started to cross the street and almost got run down by a black Sierra. The truck stopped completely. Juvia glanced back at the house. The curtains lay flat; the door was closed.

The moment was gone.

Juvia opened the truck's door and got in, promptly asking, "Are you stalking me?"

"I'm looking for dealers in the Stacks," Gray said.

"If you're trying to be clever in using your own vehicle, everyone here knows who you are and everything you drive."

He didn't have much to say on the matter. That was fine, Juvia knew the truth. He wasn't looking for dealers, he was looking for her. "I'm not coming home with you again." She would if he asked.

"I didn't want you to." And other lies he told her.

"Then what are you doing out here?"

"Wondering what you're doing out here," he said.

"I'm walking home."

"Huntsman's kind of out of the way, isn't it?"

"I'm not looking for drugs," Juvia lied.

"Then what?"

"Someone left me a note in my room," she blurted, "Telling me to meet them here."

Gray's attention sharpened. "When?"

"A couple days ago."

"Who?"

"They didn't sign their name," Juvia said.

"Did you report it?"

Suddenly, she felt foolish for having said anything. "No."

"There's someone murdering people and you didn't fucking think that was worth mentioning?"

"They're murdering _men_ ," Juvia stated. "Besides, I already know it's Kyouka leaving me notes. It has to be."

"Juvia—"

"You're going to tell me that she's dead and I'm going to tell you that you're _wrong._ She was locked up in _Tante_ Eileen's basement until a couple days ago and now she's out and probably wants to kill me," Juvia said with a small, hysterical laugh. "You can't say anything. She'll kill me."

Gray looked at her sadly. "Were you using again today?"

"Fuck off."

"So yes."

Juvia threw open the passenger's door and got out. She slammed it as hard as she could and started on her journey again with renewed vigor. Gray didn't go zipping past her as she thought, he lingered, creeping down the street behind her in that frustrating way he had. She took back alleys to try to lose him but every time she re-emerged, he was there, waiting for her as if he expected her to get back in. If she had a rock, she'd throw it at his windshield.

Somnium came out of the dark. It was only when she was stepping in through its front door that Gray sped off again.

There were a few people having dinner and listening to music pour out of the speakers. It was still early but the place seemed emptier than usual. Juvia was reaching for the stairs when Angel stepped out in front of her.

_"Tante_ Eileen's waiting for you in her room."

Juvia's stomach plummeted. "Okay."

She readjusted her heading and made for the room _Tante_ Eileen called her own. Two knocks on the door and it was opened. _Tante_ Eileen waited in a red robe and not much else.

She was abrupt and to the point. "Did you fuck him?"

"Yes," Juvia said.

_Tante_ Eileen opened the door, showing Gildarts waiting shirtless on the bed. "Come. Show me what he liked."

"But—"

"All of it. Beginning to end," _Tante_ Eileen said briskly.

Sleep would again have to wait.


	13. Chapter 13

**_XIII: Laxus_ **

There was something other than coffee in Ultear's coffee cup. It smelled pungent when she sipped. Laxus was feeling foolish enough to ask, "Bad night, Captain?"

"Morning, actually," she said blandly with a glance at her clock. Laxus followed her gaze and realized that he'd been awake for so long, he didn't feel like sleeping anymore, if that made any sort of sense, though he knew a shot of whisky after he had some breakfast and he'd be out like a light.

"You know, I'll just go ahead and say the last week has been shit," Ultear said. "Go big, why not?"

Jellal flicked the file on the corner of Ultear's desk. "This is it?"

"The ME's report? Yeah. Go ahead," Ultear encouraged. "Read what it has to say."

Laxus looked over Jellal's shoulder as he opened the file and a picture of their dead man appeared. "Freed Justine." He looked quite a bit different dead than he had alive. "He used to work at _Be Frank's."_

"That was the bartender that was sweet on you," Jellal vocalized.

"So he quit the bartending scene and got a job at the asylum as an orderly, got tangled up in the wrong business and wound up dead."

"This isn't so simple as that," Ultear said. "Go on. Keep reading."

Laxus let his eyes scan the page. Justine had been beaten and shot but not before he'd been poisoned. "Hell."

"That's _five_ men now, Dreyar," Ultear said. "Five men poisoned, then shot, and that Strauss girl keeps winding up in the thick of things."

"Mira's not the killer." Laxus' protests sounded weak even to his own ears.

Jellal bolstered him. "She was at the crime scenes and it's obvious that she's of special interest to the killer but at this time, I don't think she's been killing these men."

Ultear took a long sip of her coffee. "I have the press breathing down my neck. I have _Tante_ Eileen calling me every thirty minutes _demanding_ that I catch this killer, I have the Dragneel brothers tangled up in here _somewhere._ This—you know what this is?"

"A mess?" Laxus supplied.

Ultear planted her palms on her desk and leaned over so Laxus could smell the whisky on her breath. "A _clusterfuck_. A Grade A _Clusterfuck_." She pinched her nose and breathed out. "You two have been on the clock all night. Get out of here, get some sleep, and when you come back, I want answers. I want to know why Mayor Neekis was at Somnium, I want to know what Mirajane Strauss' connection with all this is, I want to know _where_ Lisanna Strauss and Kagura Mikizuchi are, and I want this _closed._ "

"Nothing major," Laxus said,

Jellal did damage control before Ultear could explode. "We have one answer already."

Ultear waved him on.

"Mayor Neekis had a public announcement today. When we questioned Mirajane, she informed us that he came to Somnium on the nights before those kinds of things. To—"

"Unwind?" Ultear's voice was as dry as kindling.

"Yes, Ma'am."

"The last time he was there?"

"Six months ago, when he announced the capture of the Cardinal."

Ultear dropped back into her seat. "Who did he see then?"

Laxus heaved a sigh. "Miss Strauss."

"Mmhm." She didn't seem particularly surprised to hear the news. "Does she have a schedule book?"

"Sometimes," Laxus said. "If there are clients that want to specifically see her, _Tante_ Eileen will schedule them in."

"Mmhm," she said again. "Find out if she's working tonight, find out if she has anyone on that schedule and, more importantly, if anyone other than _Tante_ Eileen has access to it."

"Yes, Ma'am," Jellal said again.

"Go on now, get out of here," Ultear said.

Jellal filtered out first; Laxus was hot on his heels. "I think you should get on Erza, see who has access to Mira's books. I'll talk to Mira and see who she's seeing tonight."

"I'll go talk to the ME now, see if we can do anything about an antidote, and swing by your house around eight tonight. We'll—"

"Head back to my favourite place?"

"We have to keep canvassing the joint. The killer's chosen Somnium as their killing ground. We've likely _looked_ at them a hundred times."

He was right, of course. Laxus sighed and moved past Jellal, down the stairs and outside. The wind was biting, tearing through his jacket. He vowed when he got home, he'd finally dig his winter trench out of the closet.

Laxus' eyes were drawn left to a blot of black and white. Focused, Mira came into view leaning against one of the cruisers, unafraid of if she should be allowed to do that or not. Her dark coat blew open around her legs and anywhere that wasn't sheathed in tall, dark boots looked pink with cold.

She was stone-faced when he crossed the lot to her, though when he was standing in front of her, she took his hand like it was a lifeline. "Will you drive me home?"

"I don't have the car," Laxus said.

She wasn't put out. "Then walk with me?"

"Yeah," he agreed against his better judgement. He left his hand in hers against his better judgement, too, and was caught by Jenny Realight as she pulled into the station. She stared long and hard and Laxus stared back, daring her to pop out of her car in that chipper way she had and pepper him with questions.

She seemed satisfied to lift her phone and snap a picture. The next one she took, Laxus lifted his favourite finger to her. He dropped it just as fast; if Captain Milkovich knew, or if it got into the papers, she'd skin him.

Mira wasn't so conservative, scowling and even yelling out a, "Fuck you!"

"Geez. Mira, I'm all for telling the press to fuck themselves but maybe don't do it in the parking lot of the cop shop," Laxus said and felt like a nanny for nagging her.

"They don't give a fuck about anything but their story. They just corner you and throw questions at you. _Miss Strauss, can you tell us about your psychotic sister? Miss Strauss, what about your murdering brother? Miss Strauss, did you kill five men? Are you planning your sixth?_ And then there's your partner telling me I'm too fucking stupid to kill those men. And you know what? I was fucking _insulted_. I shouldn't have been, but I was."

Her fingers had been getting progressively tighter. Laxus wiggled his fingers slightly in her grip and Mira seemed to realize. She loosened her hold. "Sorry. I'm freaking out."

"Jellal didn't mean that you were stupid," Laxus said tentatively. "Just that he thinks whoever is doing this has some background in bio." Not _much_ because they kept getting their poison's mixture wrong, but enough that they knew some chemistry. His mind churned. Maybe they were looking for a nurse or a PSW?

"Okay. The actual problem here is me being insulted that he thought I was too stupid to kill someone like this. Don't you think that's an _issue_?"

Laxus pressed a crosswalk button and waited for the light to turn red. "You're fine, Mira, I would have been pissed off, too."

They walked a block in silence, though when Somnium came into view, Mira asked, "Aren't you going to scold me for going out with Natsu?"

"Do you want me to?"

"I don't know. You think it was stupid, don't you?"

"I think you were trying to do what's best for your sister," Laxus said cautiously.

"After I texted Natsu and asked to meet in the Stacks, I thought about texting you, too, but I didn't think he'd talk if I brought you along."

"Probably not."

Mira kicked a clump of snow. "Not that it fucking mattered. Lisanna is gone with that crazy bitch and Natsu doesn't know where she is and a fucking man is dead. And before you ask again, I _really_ don't know what his affiliation was, other than what you told me. I never even saw him at that fucking asylum before, it was always that other Orderly that was taking care of Lisanna."

"Which?" Laxus asked.

"I don't remember his name. It was something weird." She loitered by Somnium's front door. "Did you want to come in?"

"Your _Tante_ already hates me," Laxus said. "You think she's going to want me upstairs?"

Mira checked her phone. "She sleeps at this time. Besides, Erza doesn't care and really, that's who I answer to."

And he still had questions. "Alright." He waved her on.

Mira pulled open the door and Laxus knew immediately that _Tante_ Eileen wasn't asleep. She was pouring gin and tonics at the bar for Zeref and Natsu, actually. She locked eyes with Laxus when he came in.

"Detective."

Laxus' face froze in something that wasn't quite a smile. _"Tante_."

"Are you here for business or pleasure?"

"Business," Laxus lied. "When you have a moment, I'd like to speak to you about some things."

Her expression scalded him. "Will it help you do your job efficiently?"

"Yes."

"I'll find you when my business is done," she said succinctly.

Mira took his hand and brought him up the stairs. Both Natsu and _Tante_ Eileen's eyes followed them all the way into Mira's room right up until she closed the door and blocked them out. She leaned back against the door and sighed heavily.

Laxus said, "That looked intense."

Mira straightened. "What are you playing at, _'I want to ask you some questions_ '?"

"I need to know who has access to your schedule."

"Just _Tante_ Eileen and Erza, I think," Mira said.

"Who's on board for tonight, do you remember?"

"I don't have it memorized. I have an eleven o'clock and other than that—" She shrugged.

That was fine. _Tante_ Eileen would have the answers that Mira didn't.

Mira pushed away from the door and took off her coat. She dropped it on the chair and went to the phone. "Are you hungry?"

"Starving."

She smiled and it was almost something normal. "I'll call down and get us something from the kitchen."

"Thanks." Laxus listened to her on the phone and helped himself to the mini fridge. There was everything in there from cider to top-shelf whisky. He took out a beer and a bourbon. He sipped the first and shot the second.

Mira set the phone back in the cradle. "It'll be a few minutes."

"Alright."

"Go wash up," Mira commanded and Laxus obeyed almost unthinkingly.

The bathroom was tidy and the mirror had been wiped clean of all water spots. Somnium's cleaners were thorough. Laxus washed the station off his hands and wetted his hair and his face. There were bags under his eyes; he still felt sleepless. A bit of food, he'd ask his questions, and then he'd get on his way.

He came back out into the room again. Mira stood at the nightstand by the bed, back to him. She held something in her hand that he couldn't see and sniffed. And sniffed, and Laxus knew without being told.

"How long have you been into that for?" Mira, who never touched drugs for fear.

She dropped whatever she'd been holding back into the drawer and closed it quietly; when she turned, her arms were wrapped around her middle. "It's only sometimes."

"Mira—"

"I _know_ ," she said shortly. "It's just been a lot lately; you know? Lisanna and Erza and _Tante_ Eileen and I keep winding up in that fucking station, and now Natsu keeps fucking things up. He came here the other day, you know, and I thought he was going to pay me for sex and do you know what I did?"

Laxus already knew where this was going. "Your job."

Mira laughed; a hitching, brittle sound. "My fucking job. That's rich. My _fucking_ —" She put the back of her hand against her mouth and closed her eyes. Not soon enough; tears wetted her cheeks.

"Hey." Laxus went to her and clumsily took her hand. She was reluctant to give it up. He was persistent, not stopping until her arm was around his neck and he was pulling her in by the waist. She fit against him like they were two broken pieces of the same cup and rested her cheek against his chest. He held her there, one arm around her waist, the other in her hair, and felt sobs wrack her body. It took several minutes for them to peter out into something manageable. Eventually, though, they did; whether that was her crying herself out or the drugs taking a firm hold of her, it was hard to tell.

Mira drifted away from him and slumped back on the bed, arms out, one leg up on the mattress, the other on the floor. Laxus helped her out of her heels before joining her, throwing them both on the floor by the bed.

Mira remained limp and looking at the ceiling. Her voice sounded far away when she said, "Erza always told me never to let men fall in love with me. I think I like it, though. But it's hard. Don't you think?"

Laxus' stomach wrenched. His voice was carefully calm, though. Bully for him. "It has its ups and downs."

Mira turned glossy blue eyes on him and laughed. Her makeup was smudged and her cheeks and nose were red and Laxus was ashamed by how much he liked the way she looked just then. He liked the way she tasted, too, though there were bits of crystalline powder on her upper lip that made her kiss this side of bitter.

Her laugh eased away and Mira put her arm around his shoulders and pulled him on top of her. He fit between her legs nicely, too, once her skirt was pushed up enough to accommodate that. She went back to kissing him, slowly at first but the more and more the cocaine grabbed her, the more frantic she became.

Mira pulled her sheer green top from the waistband of her skirt and yanked it up over her head. Her breasts were elevated to alarming degrees by a black silk bra. She lifted herself up and unhooked it expertly and everything came tumbling out in a pleasing manner. Laxus propped up on his hands and knees to really look at her. Her collarbone was poking out a little more than usual lately, he chalked that up to stress, but she was still plenty generous.

He looked at her face again and thought himself an idiot. While Mira was hanging out the window of his Plymouth and recording herself giving him blowjobs he was getting wrapped up tight in an almost invisible web. It sounded fucking crazy.

"What is it?"

"We're really fucked up, you and me," Laxus said.

Mira's mouth twitched. "Erza says that's why we work."

"Great." Like they both needed to be completely at odds with themselves to function even a little bit.

Mira lifted her hips, pulling up her skirt and down her thong with Laxus' help. He balled the underwear up in his hand and leaned in so he could kiss her again. Mira's fingers pulled his shirt out of his pants and up over his shoulders, then undid his pants, too. She had him out and pushing against her opening when someone tapped on the door. Laxus tried to back off. Mira wrapped her legs around him, pulling him in deeper, and lifted her voice.

"Come in."

" _Mira_ ," Laxus hissed but it was too late to do much but push into her and hope that her body hid his because the door opened and a woman with long dark hair that Laxus vaguely recognized entered, carrying a tray with two grilled cheese on it.

She grinned. "Hey, Mira."

"Thanks. You can just leave it there, Cana," Mira pointed to the nightstand nebulously and wiggled her hips, pushing up and over Laxus' softening cock repeatedly. He was hard again in an instant. "We'll get it after." She lifted her arms up over her head and stretched out languidly. "Fuck me."

"What?" Laxus asked dumbly.

"Fuck me," she repeated.

_You are fucking crazy_ , Laxus thought when he sat up straighter, encouraged by the torrid expression Mira wore and pushed into her slowly. She turned her head and sighed. "Harder."

Laxus did as she said and was both painfully aware of their audience and also completely oblivious; he only noticed they were alone when he heard the door close again and couldn't find Cana.

The moment was gone; the thrill still lingered. He took her by the hips and fucked her properly. Soon, her cheeks were red for a new and better reason. She rubbed between her legs and seemed to be very in tune with her body, orgasming quicker than usual.

Laxus tried to push for a second one but her body was a warm vice and he could hold out no longer. Mira wouldn't let him back off an inch so he spilled inside of her. It somehow felt more intimate today with that L word she'd thrown around earlier.

To think about it too much was to go mad. Laxus attempted to let it all fade into the background. It was thrust there by an outside force—the door swinging open and another person entering, this time unannounced.

Whatever thrill Laxus felt when Cana entered shrivelled when he realized that this was someone new.

Erza put her back against the door and sighed dramatically. "Holy fuck." If she was surprised to see Laxus or put off by their state, she made no indication. "You know, first she's seeing Acnologia and stringing him along, and now it's Zeref. Both of them are chomping at the bit to _help her out_ and she's _letting them_."

"Um—" Laxus started.

"Hi, Laxus," Erza said briskly. "Go on, get dressed then. My mother's waiting for you."

Mira, the traitor, backed away from him and there was nowhere to hide. Laxus turned and tucked back into his pants, a messy affair, and cursed Mira and Erza and all women alike all the way into the bathroom. He heard Erza still talking, though she pitched her voice lower, and Mira's less-difficult-to-hear response. From her confession of _'I got taken to the station_ ,' he figured Erza was inquiring about her whereabouts, and from Erza's sharp response, he guessed that she wasn't happy about it.

He listened for as long as he could, though he felt guilty for spying on the woman he had, in a roundabout way, told that he loved. She asked about Acnologia, and Erza mumbled something about fires and the poisoner. Laxus gathered that Acnologia and Zeref were thinking she was in a place prime for takeover. They were sharks smelling blood in the waters.

It didn't take ten minutes to clean his dick. When he could linger no longer, Laxus opened the door and made straight for the bed where his shirt still lay, a crumpled and now wrinkly mess, passing by Mira, who was even more naked now than when they were fucking. She'd dropped her skirt on the floor and was drifting toward the bathroom where he imagined she'd shower.

She snagged his elbow. "Did you want to take your grilled cheese?"

"Yeah, why the fuck not?" Laxus muttered. Mira smiled at him and pressed her mouth to his in a chaste kiss. The sheepishness he'd felt after being walked in on twice disappeared.

"Call me later?"

"Yeah."

Mira wandered on her way again.

Erza still stood by the door and watched Laxus challengingly as he got into his shirt, which he left untucked, and jacket, that he left open like she expected him to ask questions about what he heard. She was a landmine he wouldn't go near. Leave that to his partner. "Nice to see you again, Erza." She didn't respond. Laxus sighed and picked up his grilled cheese. It was cold. Of course. "Come on, are you going to give me the cold shoulder now, too?"

She said, "I want to tell you something."

"Go ahead, I'm all ears."

"You can't be in love when you're a prostitute. People get hurt."

Except for that. "Don't go projecting your garbage onto my garbage," Laxus said and tried to get out while Erza was still trying to determine what he meant.

"Wait," she called him back and he stopped because she sounded tired and exasperated and even a little bit worried.

"What?"

"If you guys get a call about—" she struggled until she found the words, "Bombs in buildings in the next few days, don't go in, okay?"

"You can't say something like that and expect me to just drop it, you know that, right?"

Her face went blank and she stared at the far wall, as cold as Laxus had ever seen her.

"Seriously, is something going to happen?"

She popped out her bottom lip and shook her head. "Couldn't say."

"Don't fuck with me, Erza."

She was a swatted hornet, her gaze stinging. " _Tante_."

"No, right now you're just _Erza._ " She could be mad all she liked. "If people are going to die, I need to _know_ and I need to know _now._ "

She took in a deep breath. _"If_ an attack like that were to happen, the goal wouldn't be to kill anyone. It would be a bomb threat, an evacuation, and then an explosion."

"Of?"

"Other bordellos."

"Why?"

"Why does anyone do anything? Because they think they have the power to," she said. "I don't want to talk about it anymore."

"Oh. Grand. You don't want to fucking talk about it. Well, do you think _Tante_ Eileen will be a little more forthcoming?"

She said in a low voice, "This is the kind of thing you talk about behind closed doors. With your partner and not anyone else. To do otherwise is encouraging your silence."

"I guess I won't be paid off, eh?"

"Not by these people," she warned.

"You're fucking mad; you know that? _Tante_ doesn't buy you immunity, not with these stakes."

"I know how to play the game, Laxus." She stepped aside and opened the door. "You should go now, my mother's waiting for you."

What else could he do?

On the main floor, _Tante_ Eileen waited by her open office door. "Quickly, Detective Dreyar."

"Deals to make, people to shake down, right?" Laxus said around a mouthful of grilled cheese.

It became obvious when she didn't smile that he needed to get a handle on his sarcasm around people like _Tante_ Eileen, his bad jokes weren't well-received. She pressed her long-fingered hand between his shoulder blades and pushed him into her office where Gildarts waited like a stone statue against the wall by the window. The door slammed. _Tante_ Eileen pointed to the chair opposite her now-familiar desk and took hers.

" _Yes_?"

Laxus pushed his conversation with Erza out of his head and got down to business. "I'd like to see the schedule book for your escorts, please, _Tante_."

She held up her hand and Gildarts handed her the cigarette he'd been nursing. "Why?"

"Because it looks like our earlier assumptions were right, the killer's targeting Mira's clients."

_Tante_ Eileen tapped her absconded cigarette in a tumbler on her desk and sat back in her chair. "I see. You may see the book but Mira won't be returning to work tonight."

"Pardon?" Laxus said.

"She's bad for business. If clients are being killed in my establishment because of her, the logical conclusion is—"

"To catch the killer and not punish her for doing _nothing_."

_Tante_ Eileen spoke over him. "She's obviously involved in something awful, Detective. She's been trouble since the word _go_ and I can't afford to keep bleeding customers because of her."

" _Tante,_ please. We're _close_ ," Laxus lied. "Just let tonight go business as usual and if we don't get the break we're looking for, do whatever you want."

"I'm going to do whatever the fuck I want _anyway_ , Detective because this is my _business._ I choose who I hire and why."

"Okay, but you can't just _fire_ her," Laxus said. "There are laws—"

"Are you the labour board?"

"No, obviously, but—"

"Because if you were, I'd tell you that she's had plenty of strikes. She disappears for sometimes days, she freelances in the Stacks, she gets arrested, she brings men into my establishment and fucks them for _free_ —"

"I paid."

"Once. Today?"

"I was going to," Laxus lied again.

"When?"

"When I got paid," Laxus said. "Last time I was here I spent all my money but Erza—"

"She may not run this place in its entirety yet, but she's still a _Tante_ ," _Tante_ Eileen snapped, as prickly as a thorn.

"Yes. Right. _Tante_ Erza. I apologize." He fucking hated politics, he hated apologizing and he hated begging but here he was, dancing with all three. "She said that I could square up on Friday when I get paid." He hoped Erza wasn't too pissed that he threw her under the bus like that.

"Really?"

"Yes."

_Tante_ Eileen shook her head and the rage was just seeping off of her. She sucked hard on her cigarette.

Laxus took the opportunity to alter the flow of the conversation. "Can you please let Mira come to work tonight, Jellal and I are going to scope the place out, watch people coming and going, we're going to catch our killer and you can do whatever you want afterwards."

"I thought you were going to do that the other night, too, but then the mayor was killed here, under your noses."

"Yes, but if we can check Mira's schedule and know who we're watching for—"

A looked dawned on _Tante_ Eileen. "Are you suggesting that my files have been compromised?"

"Uh—"

"Because if you are, you're also suggesting that I _again_ have a traitor in my midst."

"Or someone hacked your files."

"I keep everything in a fucking book, nothing goes on the internet," she said.

"Then someone could have broken into your office and copied your files," Laxus suggested.

She snorted smoke out of her nose and looked for all the world like a dragon. She opened up her desk drawer, in short, brisk movements; Laxus half-expected her to come out with a pistol and fill him in. instead, she threw a great, heavy book at him. It clunked loudly on the desktop.

Laxus took it and flipped it open. He found Mira's name on the front cover and paged to her section. There were squares with names written in; most were crossed out in blue, indicating that they'd come and paid, some were in red, no-shows, he figured. He flipped through until he got into the preschedules. Mira was booked sparsely for weeks in advance.

"How early do you take appointments?"

"We have people come in from out of town on business and plan their trips sometimes months in advance."

"Neekis?"

"A month ago?"

"And what about Simon Mikizuchi?"

"Around the same time?" _Tante_ Eileen said.

"Mister Connell?"

"Are you the detective or am I?" _Tante_ Eileen asked. "Should I do all of the work for you?"

Laxus let her snide remark go and tapped his finger on the penned page, reading through names. Mira saw _lots_ of people, some were regulars, some were not. So why kill some and not others? The only line he could draw between the victims was that they were all wealthy, save for Freed Justine. He was the outlier. _But_ , he was killed in the exact same way, leading Laxus to believe that somehow, either Kagura or Lisanna or both were the lynchpins. _How,_ though, when they'd been incarcerated for months?

Laxus put a stopper on that line of thinking for the time being and flipped through the pages to the right date and read _Jose Porla_ written in curling print. He was scheduled in for eleven, just like Mira said.

He took out his phone. _Tante_ Eileen realized he was trying to take a picture and swatted the phone away. "Absolutely not."

"This is a murder investigation, _Tante_."

"You'll need to come back with a warrant. I'm sorry, but if any of my customers even _knew_ that I let you look at that, I'd be absolutely ruined." She stood and took the book straight from his hands. "See yourself out."

" _Tante_ —"

"I've been cooperative. I don't want our relationship to change, Detective Dreyar, please get up and leave or I will use force."

Gildarts looked good for it, too, a little bit too shifty on his feet.

Laxus took in a deep, deep breath and let it all out slowly. "You're right. Thank you for your time."

At the door, _Tante_ Eileen called him back. "I suppose you should be careful now, Mister Dreyar."

"What do you mean?"

"You, too, are a target, after you so generously paid Miss Strauss to fuck you."

Like he needed more anxiety leaving Somnium. "Thanks for your concern. I'll see you this evening."

No one watched him leave Somnium and the parking lot was bright and empty, the sun was shining off the snow. Laxus squinted, not much liking being blind. He pulled out his phone and first texted Mira, saying _I don't want to freak you out but_ Tante _Eileen's thinking of canning you._ She didn't immediately respond so he called Jellal.

Despite the fact that they were supposed to be sleeping, Jellal answered on the first ring. "Yeah?"

"We should head over to the asylum," Laxus greeted.

"Right now?"

"Yeah. Listen, I think Lisanna and Kagura are involved in all this."

"Because the orderly that busted them out died in a similar way?" Jellal asked.

"I don't know. Yeah, maybe. And our killer's got a medical background, right? Like a nurse or a PSW or something?"

"I think it's a little out of a PSW's skillset but—"

"Whatever," Laxus cut in. "I've got a working theory and my gut's just telling me to look at the asylum. I'm heading that way now from Somnium but I only got my feet—"

Laxus heard a car decelerating behind him and turned. Jellal's Charger gleamed in the winter sunlight. He hung up the phone and got into the passenger's side. "Psychic now?"

"Just out for a drive."

"To Somnium?"

"It may have been on my radar," Jellal avoided.

"Sorry. If it helps, Erza's in a bit of a mood, I don't know if she'd be too kind to you."

"She never is," Jellal mused and put his foot down on the accelerator. "What's your working theory?"

"Kagura's taken notes out of the Cardinal's poisoned pages."

"Pun intended?"

"No, but it was a pretty good one," Laxus said with a laugh that was all sleep-deprivation.

"Theory?" Jellal prodded.

"Right. What if when Kagura was locked up, she was whispering in the ear of one of the staff? They start to think that what she's saying makes sense, they set out and start continuing the Cardinal's work."

"Except now they're not killing escorts, they're killing their clientele?" Jellal asked in such a way that Laxus felt defensive.

"Yeah, I guess. It makes sense."

Jellal sighed. "It'd make _more_ sense if they were killing all kinds of guys, and not just Mira's clientele."

Laxus didn't have an answer for that. He changed the subject and told Jellal about Acnologia's and Zeref's respective visits to Somnium, Erza's vague warnings about bombs, the book _Tante_ Eileen showed him, Mira's customer that night, and _Tante_ Eileen's suspicion that one of her people had turned on her.

"You think we should question her employees?"

"Yeah," Laxus said. "I'm going to let you take point on that one, though." He was through talking with _Tante_ Eileen.

* * *

Laxus had never been to the asylum with Mira, she never asked for company. He figured she was embarrassed and Lisanna likely didn't want to spend time with the guy that sometimes paid to fuck her sister. Which also happened to be the same guy that arrested her.

He now wished that he had worked up the balls to visit once in a while. His father used to tell him _once a cop, always a cop_. Laxus didn't know what it meant when he was fourteen but now? He understood that his brain was always sizing people up, cataloguing their behaviour and filing it away. It wasn't always a conscious thing, but if the information was there, he could dig it up and stew in it.

Now he didn't know if the small nurse at the front desk was naturally twitchy with the police, if it was a recent thing, or if her hesitance had more to do with his appearance. He hadn't shaved in a couple of days, there were bags beneath his eyes, and his clothes were unkempt.

Though Laxus didn't know if it was true or not, he thought he likely looked like his father used to when he'd come home from three-day-long benders. That was fine. He put on his best stony face and didn't give the nurse an inch of breathing space. People were honest when they were scared, in his opinion.

"We're looking for employee records, Miss," Jellal was saying. "I'd like to start with anyone that worked closely with Lisanna Strauss and Kagura Mikizuchi. Doctors and nurses, orderlies."

She looked terrified. "I don't have access to any of that. I'll put you in contact with the head doctor." Her hand trembled going for the phone. She spoke hurriedly into the receiver and when she hung up again, she came out of the nurse's station and said, "This way."

Laxus followed behind her using long steps, down a pea-green hallway illuminated with unforgiving fluorescent bulbs. The nurse looked like shit, Jellal looked like shit, Laxus was positive he did, too, pale and exhausted and on edge.

The nurse made a sharp right into a newer part of the building, a less clinical one where the hallways were lined with offices and the lights changed to softer halogen bulbs. She stopped in front of the first door of three, the name on the frosted glass reading _Doctor Edmund._ She knocked and a man immediately said, "Enter."

Laxus was the first through the door and into the office that smelled like coffee and paper. A tall and reedy man stood from a long rectangular desk and reached over its surface to shake hands. His palms were clammy and cold.

"Gentlemen. Chelia says you're from the police."

"Yeah." Laxus helped himself to a chair opposite the desk.

"I already spoke with some constables from the MPD, they have my security tapes and my log records and—"

"We're not here about the breakout. Well, not really," Laxus said. "We wanted access to employee records in relation to a string of murders."

"The Nightshade killings?"

"Lord," Laxus muttered. "Have they found another fucking name for another fucking killer? They have to stop glorifying this shit."

Jellal gave him a _what the fuck_ look and the doctor looked stricken.

"Sorry," Laxus muttered.

The doctor said, "The name was in the papers this morning."

And he hadn't fucking touched the paper since—well, a long time ago. "Great. Yeah. We'll call them the Nightshade killer."

"We're looking for any employees that had close contact with Lisanna Strauss or Kagura Mikizuchi. Any friendships or rivalries, even."

"Those girls' had friends in each other and that's all," Doctor Edmund said. "Though I did notice when shortly after Mister Justine started he began looking at Kagura… inappropriately. She didn't help matters. I switched him from the women's floor to the men's."

"If that's the case, how'd he help them the night of the escape? Wouldn't someone have noticed him missing from his floor?"

Doctor Edmund looked sheepish. "An orderly called in sick and we were already short-staffed. It couldn't be helped."

"Who called in sick?" Laxus asked.

"A fellow by the name of Bickslow."

"Is he around?"

The doctor shook his head. "He resigned his position a couple days ago."

An orderly wasn't a doctor but all the red flags went off in Laxus' mind. "For a new job?"

"I can't say. I didn't receive any reference calls or anything."

"Do you have an address for him?" Jellal asked. "Phone number?"

"Yes. I should, in our records," Edmund said and got to his feet.

Laxus heart was beating hard when a file was dropped down in front of him and Jellal scribbled down Bickslow's name and address. "Are there any other employees of special interest? Acting weird, not showing up for work? Inappropriate relations with the inmates, that kind of thing?" He had to be thorough. If he wasn't, he was just another lazy cop.

"No, not that I'm aware of. We run background checks on all of our employees and the police have already questioned them all," Edmund said cautiously.

"And this Bickslow? Any record?"

"If he had one, he wouldn't be working here," Edmund said.

That didn't mean much; a person could do a lot of things without getting caught if they were smart enough.

Jellal stood and Laxus followed. "Alright. Thanks. We'll be in touch."

Jellal was on his phone well before they were out of the building, sending a unit over to Bickslow's address.


	14. Chapter 14

_** XIV: Jellal ** _

Bickslow lived in a part of town that was very industrial-revolution era. The space below his grey brick apartment used to be a part of a bullet factory before it was cut and divided into shops to form an ugly strip mall filled with various stores of no particular theme.

A uniformed unit was waiting by the cruiser on the street when Jellal nosed his car around the corner. He slowed right down and undid his window so he could speak to the officers and peek into the backseat on the way by. It was empty. He was both annoyed and relieved. He was so tired, too tired to drag Bickslow into questioning and do a decent job, to be sure.

"No answer and the building super says they haven't seen him in a week," said the female officer.

Jellal felt the urge to get out an inspect himself. He argued, thinking that there came a point where you just had to step back and breathe, wasn't there?

Laxus wasn't a firm believer in that. Despite the bags under his eyes, despite how he smelled like bourbon and women's perfume and sweat, he undid his seatbelt and got out just as soon as the car had slowed enough for that.

Jellal took in a deep, deep breath, centring himself, then followed, telling the officers to, "Keep watch and radio if you see him coming in."

The apartment's entrance was between two shop doors, an electronics place on the left and a barber on the right, both looking a little weatherworn. There was no lock on the door to bar non-tenants from entering the apartments and inside, the hallway was dingy. The stairs were covered in brown carpet and the walls were patterned in grimy handprints. To top it all off, the whole place smelled like stale cigarette smoke.

Bickslow lived in apartment one, the closest to the landing. Jellal knocked on the brown paint-chipped door and waited, listening to the inside. He knew the uniforms said that there wasn't anyone home but while he was wasting time out there and not in his own bed, he figured he'd at least be thorough.

He knocked again.

Laxus tried peeping through the peephole.

"See anything?"

"A cabinet full of tiki dolls?" Laxus suggested.

"Tiki dolls?"

"Yeah, you know, Polynesian dolls?"

Jellal looked at him blankly.

"The ones with the faces," Laxus said, exasperated. "Tiki dolls."

"Okay." Jellal tried the door once more; Laxus grabbed the door handle and jiggled it.

"Hey," Jellal hissed.

"Just checking. Maybe he was dead, I don't know," Laxus said facetiously and rapped the bottom of the door with his foot. It was because of that that Jellal noticed shadows moving inside. He pushed Laxus back, waiting for the door to open. He heard a window slide up and knew things weren't going the way they were supposed to. He rapped on the door again.

"Police. Open up."

Cold air snuck beneath the door and hit against Jellal's shoes. "Hell," he muttered and slammed on the door again. "Police!"

When that turned up nothing, he thought _is this probable cause_? And then yes, because men ran when they were guilty. He tried the door handle like Laxus had to the same effect, then jammed his shoulder into it. The door wobbled but didn't break in. Jellal tried again, and then Laxus tried with him twice more. Finally, the doorframe split enough that he could peek in and see the top of Bickslow's head as he slid out the window.

"Go!" Laxus pushed him and Jellal ran, flying back down the stairs so fast that his feet barely touched the risers. The unit on the street watched him, bewildered when he skidded out the door, then they joined in the hunt, one of them following Jellal, the other going the opposite way.

The sidewalk was glassy with melted roof ice. Someone had dropped salt down but it was so cold that it hadn't done much, except make footing more precarious. He skidded and corrected and felt something pull in his back. It didn't hurt yet but it was going to.

Ice turned to unploughed snow spotted with footprints. Jellal followed them, using his long legs to his advantage. They went up over a chain link fence and then on the other side, they faded because whoever owned that lot kept it clean.

He heard an engine rev and then watched an old black and patchy Volkswagen Golf tear out of one of the spots. He tried to get an eye on the licence plate but it was a bad angle, and then the car was too far away.

"Fuck." He took another step and realized that there was snow down in his shoes and up the leg of his pants. The uniform caught up to him, panting, and Jellal told her, "Run Bickslow's name, get the plates of his car." If it was his and if he had it registered. "And get an APB out on him."

He tried to step back in his footprints returning to the building; it was a lost cause. He resigned himself to soaking and cold feet.

Laxus met him at the apartment doors. He saw Jellal was empty-handed and swore.

"Anything upstairs?"

"A lot of drugs, a lot of panties, but nothing too out of the norm for this place."

"I have them putting out an APB," Jellal said. "He won't get far. I'll get on the phone and send some people inside, see what we can find."

Laxus turned to trod back up the stairs. Jellal grabbed his collar and aimed him toward the Charger.

"What are you doing?"

"Handing it off to someone else for a few hours," Jellal said patiently. "We're both spent."

Laxus wavered, and then all of the fight went out of him. "Alright. Let's go."

Jellal drove and called the office, where he reported to Ultear and got her to deploy a unit both to Bickslow's apartment and to Jose Porla's side. If he really was the target, he'd want a police escort until such a time that the killer was caught. Ultear reprimanded them for still being on the clock but thanked them for digging around more.

After hanging up with her, they drove most of the way in silence. It wasn't until Laxus' house came into view that Laxus dragged his head from the window and said, "It's not just Ultear putting pressure on us, I told _Tante_ Eileen that we were going to catch this killer tonight."

Jellal sighed. Under normal circumstances, _Tante_ Eileen was at least somewhat reasonable, but she was stressed lately, and that made her irritable.

"We're going to catch a break," Laxus said. "I can feel it."

"Found your optimist panties?"

"She said she was going to fire Mira, so it's either figure it out or she gets sacked."

Jellal pulled into the driveway. "I feel like she's always threatening to fire Mira and Erza never lets her."

"This time was different. Things are changing at Somnium."

"Because Zeref and Acnologia are sniffing around? Those three are always fighting some war or another," Jellal said.

"I don't know," Laxus replied. "It just feels like something's in the air."

Jellal knew the feeling. "We'll catch a break tonight," he mirrored.

Laxus threw open the door and trudged to the house. His grandfather was already there opening up the door. He looked both worried and mad, shooting a dirty look Jellal's way like it was _his_ fault his grandson didn't know how to pick up a phone to tell him that he was running late.

Jellal put on the Arctic Monkeys before leaving and listened to _Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High_? By the time the song was done, he was pulling into his parking lot.

Beau waited for him upstairs. He took her for a walk through the park next to his building. She sniffed around and he ate a wrap someone, likely Porlyusica, judging by the amount of salt used, had made for him.

When they were done, despite having only gone out with Wendy for a walk, Beau crawled into bed with him, putting her back to his side and her snout on his bicep.

Jellal didn't remember closing his eyes. He dreamed of strange things, eyedroppers and glasses and foaming lips, running and running and never catching who he chased after.

Dream Jellal was receiving a cold kiss from lips smeared with bitter poison when Beau shot out of bed and raced for the door, waking him. Bleary-eyed, he reached for the gun he'd discarded on his nightstand.

Scarlet appeared in the doorway. "Are you going to shoot me?"

It took a full second for his brain's cogs to engage. He released the gun and dropped down onto his pillow. "Sorry," he croaked.

"That's fine."

Jellal turned his head. Erza's hair was loose around her shoulders, her bangs had been trimmed and were styled aside. She still wore her coat, though she'd kicked off her shoes. Her feet were in black lacy stockings; he couldn't see much else, her coat fell too far.

She sat on the edge of the bed. She wasn't very cold so he determined either she drove there herself, or, more likely, she got one of her people to drop her off. Gildarts, probably.

"I wanted to talk to you about tonight."

"I know, having the cops at Somnium is bad for business. We'll be discrete," Jellal told her.

" _Yes_ , there's that," Erza said. "But Mira's customer, Jose Porla, is important."

"Okay."

"He's a bank manager."

"Alright."

He didn't ask for details, but Erza told him, "He's been keeping tabs on my mother's transactions for me."

"Do I ask why?"

"Not if you want to keep your legal and my illegal business separate."

His answer was simple and immediate. "Okay." It was disturbing how easy he fell into old habits. He wondered if he was a bad cop.

"The point is that I very much don't want him dead. My mother may resist your presence at Somnium, but I wanted you to know that you're welcome."

"A personal invitation from _Tante_ Erza?" Jellal said with a smile. "You came a long way to tell me that in person."

She looked slightly uncomfortable. Which was ridiculous, considering she let herself into his apartment. "If that's how you want to view it. If she gives you any trouble, tell me and I'll deal with it."

"Making trouble seems to be your mother's MO. Did Laxus tell you she's threatening to fire Mira again?"

Erza plucked at the cuff of her coat. "Mira mentioned it, though my mother hasn't, which means I can't do much until she makes her play, not without getting your partner in trouble for having a big mouth."

"Did she expect him not to say anything?"

Erza shrugged. "She was probably baiting him, and likely just because she doesn't like him very much."

"That's convoluted."

"That's my mother."

"I'll tell Laxus you went out on a limb for him." Jellal reached out and tickled the pads of her fingertips. Erza scrunched up her hand, taking the ability away from him.

"I'm just trying to temper the bloodshed. You both make it hard, showing up and butting in where you don't belong _._ "

"We're just trying to do our job."

"It's more than that," Erza said. "You love the danger. That's why you work Homicide, isn't it?"

"I do it to keep people safe."

"No one's that virtuous."

Jellal wasn't entirely comfortable with this line of conversation. He looked at the clock behind his head. "I have to start getting ready."

Erza took the caffeine pills he kept on his dresser and gave him one. She knew his routine well. "You know, there are other ways to get that thrill."

Jellal started looking at the scope of his day. "I have to run Beau still, and then I have to pick up Laxus. He doesn't like to drive his Plymouth in the winter."

Erza acted like he hadn't spoken. "And you wouldn't have such weird hours."

"I know _Tante_ Eileen's expecting us but I'd like to stop in a little earlier and try to repair whatever damage Laxus caused."

Erza said, "You could be like Gildarts."

The train that had been threatening derailment totally came off the tracks. "An enforcer?"

"He makes better money."

Jellal laughed. "Even if I wanted to return to that kind of business, I'm a cop. No one would hire me."

"I would." She was so strange, delivering the obscene in a deadpan way.

Jellal raised his eyebrow. "And I'd come to work at Somnium and your mother would find any way she could to destroy me."

Erza's shoulder lifted. "I didn't mean at Somnium."

Jellal sat up on his elbow. "What are you talking about?"

"Just talking," she said airily.

He thought it was more than that. "Are you thinking about leaving Somnium?"

"I think about a lot of things."

Jellal asked hesitantly, "Is this about the bomb threats?"

Erza said, "It was only a rumour."

"If you thought they were so baseless, you wouldn't have bothered warning Laxus."

"I've been jittery."

Erza almost never talked about this stuff. Jellal narrowed in and listened with intent. "What's bothering you?"

Again, she shrugged. "It feels like I'm being watched."

"Because you are."

She looked so stricken, Jellal explained further. "Being _Tante_ means the public's going to be looking at you, Erza. You're pledging to keep your escorts and your clients safe and it's your job to be Somnium's face and to make the escort business seem tasteful. It's a lot of pressure."

"No, it's not like that," Erza said. "It's not the public or the newspapers. You know that feeling you get when you're sitting at a stoplight and you think the person in the car next to you is looking over? And when you check, you're right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, it's that. Like, when I walked Beau in the park the other night, I swear to you, someone was out there with me."

"Lots of people move through that park. Kids hook up there all the time," Jellal said.

"Okay, sure, but it happened the other day in the alley, too. I _felt_ their eyes. I swear to you, someone was waiting for me to come out and find the mayor. Mira says I'm being paranoid but I'm not fucking crazy."

Jellal said, "I don't think you're crazy. When did it start?"

Erza would barely meet his eyes. "I don't know. A few weeks ago? When the Connell guy was found. I just remember standing out there with everyone else when the police were cordoning off the area and thinking _someone's watching me_."

"A lot of times, the killer will hang around the crime scene afterwards." Jellal wasn't sure if his words were making her feel better or not; she was hard to read. The way she looked at him blankly could mean she was perturbed or it could mean nothing at all. "They like to see their work."

"That's weird."

"People are weird. Try to remember if there's any face you keep seeing."

"I know what killers look like," Erza said. "If I kept seeing one, I'd recognize it."

"Some of them are really good at hiding—"

"Not from me," she said adamantly. "I've seen them too often."

"Erza—"

"That's enough. I didn't come here to talk about murderers."

"Then what?

She stood and took off her coat. Beneath she wore a sheer black bodystocking patterned with roses and nothing else. Jellal's words fled his mind, as did the poisoned way she left his apartment last time.

She gathered her hair up and moved it over her shoulder, baring herself to him. The lace hid and it revealed. Her skin looked so, so white beneath it. "Stand up."

Jellal pushed the covers away and stood in front of her. She looked him over from head to toe. Her fingers fixed his unruly hair, then traced down over his cheeks. His stubble scraped against her skin. It was hard to tell if she minded or not.

She traced between his pectorals and abs and followed the muscles at his hips. He waited for her to go into his underwear but Erza seemed satisfied to run the tip of her nail over the length of his cock for a maddening amount of time. Long enough for everything to become hypersensitive.

He waited for another moment, then reached into his underwear himself.

"Is this what you came to Somnium for today?"

Her words were loaded with a bullet and Jellal couldn't see where it was pointed. "I was thinking about you," he said cautiously.

"About this?" She gathered her breasts together and lifted them under one arm. "Or this?" Her other hand moved between her legs. He got harder and she noticed. Relief washed over her face. There was also anger, though. "We have whores for that."

"I didn't want one of Somnium's whores. I wanted you."

"It's not very proper for a _Tante_ to be taking customers."

Her peculiar behaviour was taking the fun away. "I didn't know you saw me as a customer."

Her lips pressed together. "I didn't know you saw me as a whore."

"I wouldn't give a whore the key to my apartment. I wouldn't let her walk my dog, either."

His answer seemed to disquiet her. Jellal waited for her to get her things and leave.

She let her air out in a gentle, if not resigned, sigh and sank to her knees. There, she took his hands. Jellal let her bring them to her hair. She wasn't satisfied until he was holding it all back with both hands. She kissed low on his belly and his hips and took the waistband of his underwear and pulled them down.

It took a moment to get back to a place where he could relax and enjoy himself. Erza was thorough, though, and dedicated, and teased him until he was rigid to near-pain. Only then did she stand. She went to the dresser and the mirror and waited. Jellal fit in behind her and spread her legs, where he found her bodystocking was designed to make access easy. She was wet and welcomed his fingers.

Jellal settled into a familiar rhythm and found the place she liked. She leaned back and wrapped her arm around his neck, bringing his face down to the crook of her shoulder where he kissed and glanced at her face in the mirror. She looked serene with her eyes closed and her lips parted in short, quick breaths.

Erza rolled her head on Jellal's shoulder; if he wasn't watching her in the mirror, he would have missed the invitation. He kissed her and she met his lips without the same reservation she always did. Something else had changed.

He put that away to think about later. For now, he took her hips and pulled her back against him to get a better angle. Then he slid into her and fucked her hard. The mirror banged loudly against the wall, announcing their activity to his neighbours. Jellal didn't care about that, though. He cared about Erza's curling fingers and reddening neck and the way her breath fogged the mirror. Her breasts bouncing and her body closing like a soft vice around his.

He came before she did. He rectified that by kneeling on the ground and tasting between her legs. He could no longer see her face in the mirror, but he liked looking up at her like this, seeing the rounded undersides of her breasts and bringing her to the kind of orgasm that made her knees get weak.

By the time she was panting and sinking down into his lap, Jellal was ready to go again.

* * *

The sun was beginning to set when Jellal took Beau for a run. The orange and red light glinted off the paint of a shiny black Town Car that waited in the parking lot. Jellal lifted his hand to Gildarts, who stood against the side panel and smoked a cigarette.

Gildarts chose a nod in lieu of a wave. Jellal's months of sharing a bed with Erza hadn't made Gildarts like him any more than he did previously. Handcuffing him to the steering wheel while he went in to arrest Kyouka may have had something to do with that.

Both the car and Erza were gone when Jellal got back. He showered and shaved with an electric razor so he looked somewhat presentable, and brushed his hair back from his face. He stuck it down with some pomade in advance, the kind _Tante_ Alba used to give him for his birthdays.

He dressed in his nicest civilian clothes, wanting to fit in as best as he could. It wasn't going to be easy. It seemed like everyone knew his face now for some reason or another. Anyone that kept up with current events thanked him or cursed him, depending on their allegiance. When he first joined the police force, he thought there would be bliss in notoriety after spending so long in the shadows for _Tante_ Alba; as he got older, he began to see the benefit of anonymity.

Jellal threw on a T-shirt, did up the belt on a pair of light blue jeans and topped the look off with a sport coat to hide his gun. The final touch was a flat cap to try to hide his face as much as possible. He grabbed his coat and his wallet and his badge, his keys, too, said goodbye to Beau, and headed out.

A familiar black truck waited in his parking lot by his Charger. Jellal sighed and went to it. It was suffocatingly hot inside and smelled like new vehicle. Unlike his Charger, it was clean of any coffee cups and there was a baby seat in the back.

"This is unusual."

"Yeah," Gray agreed. "I know. I just got out of the office and I was on my way home and made a detour."

"Okay," Jellal said leadingly.

"I wanted to talk to you about Somnium," Gray said.

And that was the _last_ thing he wanted to talk about, honestly. But Gray wouldn't have gone out of his way if it weren't important. "What about it?"

"I've been talking to Juvia lately."

Jellal gave him a look and Gray found an interesting spot on his windshield to stare at. "I know. It's complicated."

It always was.

"Anyway. She's spooked. She keeps saying that _Tante_ Eileen's going to kill her."

"Juvia's always spooked. People like her usually are, and it's usually for good cause. She probably owes money she can't pay."

"Probably. It's not just that, though," Gray said. "I found her wandering through the Stacks last night."

"That's not doing much for your theory. Was she there trying to make some extra cash?"

"The first time she was," Gray said.

"Hell. There was more than once?"

Gray's cheeks turned red. "This time, she was walking through, and told me someone's been leaving her notes."

"What kind of notes?"

"Someone asked her to meet them. I told her to report it but…"

But Juvia never would, not officially. "Was there anything threatening in it?"

"No."

"Well, writing a note isn't a crime."

"No," Gray agreed. "But…"

"But what?"

"I don't know," Gray said. "I don't know what to tell you because I _don't know._ "

Jellal considered getting out and leaving him there. Something made him stay. "Did the note have a name on it or anything?"

Gray shook his head. "No, but she told me it was from Kyouka."

"Kyouka's dead."

"That's what I told her. She was _adamant_ , though, so I did some digging."

A small cold stone plunged through Jellal's stomach. "You went through the coroner's report on your ex-girlfriend's request?"

"It sounds crazy, I know, but I couldn't get it out of my head," Gray said. "And the whole fucking thing is weird."

"In what way?"

"I had to really go through the ropes to see the report. It never got uploaded to the database."

"Okay."

"It was misfiled, too, put under suicides. The report said she put a bullet in her head and was cremated but I remember when it happened, Ultear was over and she had another story."

"Nice pillow talk."

Gray's look could scald. "You were there when it happened. How did she die?"

"She was poisoned," Jellal said. His mind was shifting hard through the gears.

"Which is what Ultear told me. That means the records were falsified and buried."

Why, though?

"Did you see her body in the morgue?"

"That day was crazy," Jellal said. "Laxus shot his old man, Tores was done in, Lisanna Strauss confessed to the murder."

"So no."

"No," Jellal agreed. "Did you talk to the coroner?"

"The one that did Kyouka's autopsy died in a car crash three days after Kyouka was brought in," Gray said.

That seemed just like the kind of thing that someone with a lot of power and a vendetta would do to cover her tracks. Jellal puffed up his cheeks and Gray gave light to an improbable question.

"Is it possible that Juvia was right and she's been alive all this time?"

"What's possible is asking questions like this to the wrong people will get us both killed."

"I know as well as anyone that there are some things that you shouldn't dig through, and Somnium falls under that banner, but if she is alive, she's free and she's sending notes to Juvia. Which means she didn't hop on the first boat to somewhere warm and she's likely looking for revenge," Gray said.

Kyouka had bones to pick with a lot of people. "I'll bring it up with _Tante_ Eileen." That was going to be a pleasant conversation. "Thanks for the tip."

"Hey, something else slid across my desk today. Something you might be interested in," Gray said.

"What's that?"

"I don't know if it'll lead anywhere, but one of my sources in pharmaceuticals told me that they were contacted to move a large order of Methadyl."

"What's that?"

"The main ingredient in making an opioid derivative called Black Jack."

"Alright."

Gray said, "And mixed improperly, it can make Methaldextra Hydrate."

Jellal's attention sharpened. "Who contacted them?"

"My source says that they wouldn't give a name, which isn't unusual. They offered a lot of money to get it ordered in, though."

"Where did it end up going?" Jellal asked.

"My informant claims they didn't take the order."

"Are they trustworthy?"

Gray half-smiled and snorted. "They're taking large orders for prescription drugs to sell on the streets. No, they're not trustworthy."

That was the way of it, Jellal supposed. "Can I have your informants name?"

"If I give you their name I fuck up my source."

"They don't sound like a very reliable one anyway," Jellal pointed out.

"Yeah, but they're all I have going for me. I'll look down some other avenues for you. I have a couple other trees I can shake to get some information," Gray offered.

"Thanks." In the spirit of being cooperative, Jellal told him, "I have sources saying that Acnologia's making new business deals with powerful people. His distribution game might be changing."

"I guess you don't want to give up your source, either?"

"She'd probably kill me."

"I suppose that's telling enough." Gray rubbed the scruff on his cheeks. "I liked it better when everyone was at everyone else's throats."

Jellal, too. "Text me if you hear anything."

"Yeah."

"You should probably let me handle anything with Juvia, too." He was overstepping, likely, but Juvia was the kind of girl that brought out the worst in Gray.

"I should," Gray agreed, though it wasn't a promise.

Jellal got out and got on the road.

* * *

Laxus' first words when he got into the car were, "You look like a hipster."

Jellal sighed. "It's always something with you. When the fuck did you become such a fashion guru? And a judgy one at that?"

"Doesn't mean anything, I was just saying," Laxus muttered.

"Well, don't." It's not like Laxus was doing better. Beneath his trench coat was a loose beige sweater his gun would hide beneath and jeans with the knees torn out of them. He was a weird amalgamation of fashion and Jellal wasn't sure any of it was working.

"Did you see Scarlet?"

"She came by," Jellal led.

"Did she talk more about the bombings?"

Jellal shook his head. "Might just be rumblings. Gray came by before I left, though."

"Fullbuster?"

"Yeah. He had some interesting things to say." Jellal told him about the note and Gray's findings when he investigated Kyouka's autopsy.

"Why the hell would someone falsify the report and misfile it?"

"Because someone hated Kyouka a lot and wanted revenge on her," Jellal said. " _Tante_ Eileen has the means and motive."

"You believe this shit? She was _dead._ We both waited for the coroner to arrive and we both saw him pronounce her dead. The EMT's couldn't even use the paddles on her because she had no heartrate."

"There are poisons that can slow bodily function down to almost nothing."

"Enough to fool equipment?"

"Maybe. I don't know what Gildarts used on her."

"Who knew Gildarts was such an authority on poisons?" Laxus mused.

Yeah, who knew?

Laxus could follow his thought process like Jellal was leaving a breadcrumb trail. "You're thinking he's our guy?"

"Doesn't fit the profile."

"To _fuck_ with the profile," Laxus said. "Shrinks are wrong all the time. He's the only character shifty enough and experienced with poisoning."

"Yeah, but he's loyal to _Tante_ Eileen. Why would he try to fuck things up for her?" Jellal posed.

"I don't know? Jealousy? Things were looking a little intense between them today. If she's not fucking him I'll hang up my gun."

"Could be. Or could be he's not the person we're looking for. We should consider people that have a grudge against _Tante_ Eileen and Mira."

"People with a medical background."

"Broaden the scope," Jellal said. "A biology or chemistry background. Doctors, lab techs, hell, even vets."

"Nurses?" Laxus asked.

"Yeah."

"Wasn't Erza in nursing school before that stuff with her husband started?"

"She was. Yeah," Jellal said shortly.

"So that gives her means and opportunity."

"No motive, though," Jellal said like that closed the case.

"We should talk to her just to be sure. I know her and Mira are friends and they share a lot," he said vaguely, more uncomfortable with their situation than Jellal was, "But they've also had their differences, too."

Like when Mira got them both fired from the Barrel for freelancing. Or when Erza held Mira back when Jellal and Laxus came to pick up Lisanna. Was there an animosity that existed beyond their sometimes shared bed?

_Or what if you're wrong and they're both in on it?_ What if the plan wasn't to ruin Mira but to ruin Somnium? There was motive there. Erza never wanted to be _Tante_ and Mira must have still been furious about Lisanna.

Speculating just brought him around in a circle.

Jellal pulled on his rationality. "We'll explore every possibility." And the evidence would lead them true.


	15. Chapter 15

**_XV: Laxus_ **

Laxus figured that Erza must have come through for them when they arrived at Somnium's front door before the evening crowd and Angel only frisked them for wires and didn't try to take their guns, though she made sure to tell them, "If any of our guests have a problem with you here, I have orders to kick you out."

"How are we supposed to catch our killer if we're not in the bar, huh?" Laxus asked.

Angel replied, "That's not my problem."

"Come on." Jellal took Laxus' bicep and pulled him inside the shaded building.

The blue lights were on already, illuminating the ceiling, the underside of the bar and the bartender. Cana, Laxus remembered.

"Hey, boys," she said with a smile and a wink. "Laxus. Can I get you guys a drink?"

"Light beer." He wanted to fit in but he didn't want his head fuzzy.

Jellal said, "Same."

"Coming up." She disappeared.

Jellal asked, "Friend of yours, _Laxus?_ "

"Not really."

Jellal smiled like he knew something.

"Did Erza day anything to you?" Laxus asked suspiciously.

"She says lots of things."

"About when I was here this morning?"

Jellal shrugged noncommittally and Laxus pulled at the collar of his sweater. It felt suddenly hot in there.

"It's complicated."

"Always is."

"She just gets these ideas."

"I'm not judging."

Laxus glowered. His partner was unaffected.

Cana returned with the beer but held Laxus' back. "Mira said you might be around later."

"Did she?"

"Yeah. She thought maybe we could have a couple drinks after."

He felt like he was being propositioned. "Uh..."

"Sounds like fun," Jellal butted in. "My partner loves fun."

"Great." Her teeth came out in a smile. "I'll let Mira know you're in." Then she swayed down to the other end of the bar where a woman had settled down, the first customer of the night.

"' _My partner loves fun_?'" Laxus asked.

"Don't you?" Jellal asked innocently.

"Do you know what fun _entails_?"

He looked at the raftered ceiling like he was thinking hard. "Drinks plus exhibitionist Mira plus Mira's flirty friend. Haven't the foggiest."

"You're an asshat."

"You need to lighten up. Or tell her that you're not into that instead of grabbing on the mane of a fucking racehorse and hoping you don't fall off."

"My life is out of control," Laxus muttered.

"Yes. At least you know you have a problem." Jellal picked up his beer and faced _Tante_ Eileen's office. "We need to talk to her."

"Go ahead."

"That means you, too."

Laxus' frown deepened. "I don't like this case."

"I can't remember you ever liking a case."

"That's not true. Remember when we found that guy chopped up and thrown in a pond at the Sports show and there was that vendor that made epic beaver tails? That was a good time. Why don't we catch cases like that anymore?"

"Probably because you spend most of your time eating and not investigating." Jellal lifted his hand and knocked briskly on _Tante_ Eileen's door.

"If your name is Fernandez or Dreyar, I'm not in," called a falsely sweet voice.

Jellal took the doorknob and entered and Laxus wondered if he wasn't the only one that had caught a case of the crazies lately.

_Tante_ Eileen was in another corset today, this one red and black and laced loosely at the front and a pair of dark jeans. She was perched on the edge of her desk with her legs crossed, looking down on a wide-eyed Juvia. She turned her scathing glare from Juvia to Laxus and then Jellal. "Are you hard of hearing?"

"We need to speak to you, _Tante_ ," Jellal said. "Before Mira's client arrives and before Somnium fills up too much, hopefully."

_Tante_ Eileen heaved a giant sigh. "Go, Juvia, and get ready. He'll be here to pick you up shortly."

"Yes, _Tante_." Juvia stood and left, closing the door behind her. Jellal took up residence in the seat she'd vacated and Laxus dropped down on the loveseat by the bookshelf. He got another dirty look from _Tante_ Eileen. Seemed he couldn't do much of anything right in her eyes.

"I feel like I'm saying this constantly lately, but _what_ , Detectives."

"We came to apologize for Laxus being rude earlier," Jellal said briskly.

"Sorry," Laxus tagged on.

"Apology not accepted. Now, I actually have to go out tonight, so leave, because I have a lot of stuff to do yet. Goodbye."

Laxus blurted, "Strange you'd leave when there's a potential hit out on one of your best clients."

Eileen's scowl darkened. "What are you suggesting?"

"He's not suggesting anything, _Tante_ ," Jellal said.

"Good. Erza will handle anything that comes up and anything she can't, you dolts are here with your handcuffs, aren't you?"

Laxus nodded his head. "Yes. Ma'am. And if anything goes wrong, we have an ambulance on call." Not that they'd found an antidote, but it was something.

"Then? I'll close my eyes and hope my bordello's in one piece when I return. Leave."

"Wait, _Tante_ ," Jellal begged. "We have something else we wanted to talk to you about."

"What?" she snapped.

"We have reason to believe that Kyouka is still alive and now on the loose."

Whatever she'd been expecting them to say, it wasn't that. It looked like she swallowed a golf ball but she managed to spit out, "Pardon?"

"The last encounter you two had, you were sending Gildarts to retrieve her," Jellal said.

"You don't have any proof of that."

"I'm not here to argue yes or no, her whereabouts in the time she was supposed to be dead or the legality of any actions you may have taken within that time, but I wanted you to know, _Tante_ , so you can protect your girls."

After a moment, she said, "As long as they're here, they're protected. When they start wandering around the streets unescorted is when things get dicey."

"I assume you told them to stay put?" Jellal said.

"Of course. Did one of them approach you?"

Jellal deadpanned a, "No."

"Then how else would you have such delicate information?"

"Does that matter?"

"To me."

"Sorry, _Tante_ , you know I can't give away my sources. The most important thing is that you're aware of the threat and you're taking preventative measures."

"Of course."

"We'll put out an APB for her," Laxus said. "Every cop in the city will be on the lookout."

"Comforting."

Jellal acted like he didn't hear the sarcasm in her voice. "That's our job."

She sat back and folded her arms over her chest. "Does this mean you think Kyouka's the poisoner?"

"We were hoping you'd be able to tell us if it was possible."

She pursed her lips. "Cooperating with the police goes against my very nature."

_Everything_ civil went against her very nature.

Jellal was made for politics. Or at least, he was better made than Laxus was, patient and forthcoming with tools of manipulation. "It's for everyone's benefit. Anything you say now is off the record and just between us three."

She thought her next words through thoroughly. "I'm not certain, Detective, but if I had to hazard a guess, I might say Kyouka was preoccupied when all of this began."

"Is it possible she had assistance?"

"If it were, I'd tell you to question Juvia Lockser."

"We're going to have to question all of your employees, actually," Laxus put out as delicately as he could. "We need to talk to them about your scheduling book."

"I am handling the book issue."

"Is that what Juvia was in here for?" Laxus pried.

"Partially."

Laxus waved her on.

"If you must know, she left a very important client's house without a word, embarrassing herself and me when she didn't immediately tell me what transpired and I heard second-hand."

Laxus sat back in his seat. "She's never going to give you the truth now."

"Because she's frightened?" _Tante_ Eileen asked. "Sometimes, fear is a great motivator."

"And sometimes, people trust police."

"Detective Dreyar, how long have you been a member of the police force?"

"Fifteen years." In a month, anyway, he'd get his fifteenth-year commemorative pin. Congratulations, you've been shot at, spat on, sworn at, and punched for three times longer than most.

Despite the griping, he wouldn't give it up for anything. He didn't know who he was if he wasn't a cop.

"And how many people have you come across that like and value the police?"

Laxus said, "Not many, but all due respect, _Tante_ , not many of them have you breathing down their necks. Juvia's scared. She's scared of you, and she's scared of Kyouka, I'd bet. She's stuck between a rock and a hard place. Let us talk to her. If she knows something, she'll spill. We get Kyouka, no one looks after you, you still come out on top."

"Oh? Is that a promise of impunity?" Eileen whittled.

Laxus didn't like promises and neither did Jellal but Jellal said, "Given your checkered history, anything Kyouka has to say about the time she was fake dead is likely a lie to defame your character."

"Yes. Likely, it is," she agreed.

"So we can talk to your employees?" Laxus asked.

"If they agree to speak to you, I imagine you can talk to whoever you please."

"Thank you, _Tante_."

"But, you'll have to speak to Juvia now. She's getting ready to leave. She's upstairs in the Forget-Me-Not room. Try not to hold her up while she gets ready."

"We won't."

"And Mister Dreyar?"

"Yeah?" Laxus asked.

"Your apology was shitty." He opened his mouth. She held up her finger to silence him. "I'm not interested in hearing you fumble through it again, I'm interested in us never being in this position again."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"And Mister Dreyar," _Tante_ Eileen asked when Laxus stood and started for the door.

"Yeah?"

"Did you get paid today?"

Reluctantly, he said, "Yes, Ma'am."

"Good. You can settle up at the bar. I look forward to doing business with you again." She smiled sweetly.

Once Laxus heard the door close, he told Jellal, "I actually can't afford to keep coming back here. We should give this case up on those grounds alone."

"No one forced you to come here this morning, and it wasn't case-related," Jellal reminded him. He took the stairs two at a time; Laxus easily kept pace with him.

"Have you ever tried saying no to Mira?"

Jellal turned his question around. "Have _you_?"

"I'm not always a yes man," Laxus said defensively.

"Mmhm."

They topped the stairs. Mira's door was closed; Laxus could hear music through it and knew Mira had a customer in there. He tried not to think too much on it. "I'll lead the questions; you keep track in that freaky brain of yours?"

Jellal said, "You mean in my freaky notepad?"

"Yeah."

"Then yes."

Laxus went to the door with blue flowers, familiar with them because Wendy and Porlyusica frequently filled the house with them. _To spruce it up_ , Porlyusica would say. _It smells like old, cranky men in here_. He'd told her once to stop coming over then and earned himself a rap in the knee with her cane. Since that day, she was like a scorpion waiting to strike, baiting him. Much like _Tante_ Eileen did, actually. Maybe they went to the same school of mean.

The door cracked open and Juvia peered out. The wary expression on her face only intensified. "Yes?"

Jellal said, "Your _Tante_ said we could ask you some questions, Juvia."

"I'm getting ready to leave."

"It won't take long."

She hesitated, then stepped back and opened the door. Erza was sitting on her bed with her legs crossed. She was in a belted and short flowy dress, the top mesh over a lacy black bra and the bottom some kind of velvet that shone in the light when she stood. "Call me if you run into any problems."

"Yes, _Tante_ ," Juvia said. Erza drifted to her and pressed a kiss to her cheek. She smiled at Laxus and ran her hand down Jellal's arm on the way by, and then she was gone, trailing the scent of jasmine.

"I have to keep getting ready but go ahead, ask what you need to." Juvia went to the mirror and sprayed her curls.

Laxus took up a spot beside her, leaning against the wall out of the range of the hairspray; it gave him a headache. "Juvia, we have it on good authority that Kyouka's alive."

She sprayed a spot of her hair for too long while Laxus' words sank in. "Did you talk to Gray?"

Laxus was going to lie, Jellal beat him to the punch, saying, "He stopped by my apartment today on his way home."

She set the hairspray down and leaned into the mirror to run dark eyeliner under her eyes. "He said he didn't believe me when I told him."

"It's a pretty unbelievable tale, but you must have said something that struck a chord in him. He looked into the coroner's records," Jellal spoke again. "Not much adds up."

"No. It wouldn't because she was never made it onto the coroner's slab." She didn't sound glad or relieved that she was believed. She sounded hollowed out.

"Can you describe your relationship with Kyouka?"

She said, "She always paid attention to me and she liked having me with her. She found me after Gray and gave me a place to work. She was mean and some days, I didn't even mind. It was like having her be mean to me but pay attention to me was better than being ignored. That's crazy, isn't it? Gray used to ignore me sometimes. I don't know if it was on purpose. He works a lot. But that's almost worse."

Laxus skipped over commenting on that. Anything he said could upset her and he wanted her to keep talking. "When you were with Kyouka, did she share much with you?"

"Everything. We'd get high and lie on her bed and she'd tell me what was bothering her." She bit her lip after that, sheepish. "I mean…"

"We don't care about the drugs." Not today. "What bothered her?"

"Everything," she said again. "Everything bothered _Tante_ Kyouka. _Kyouka_ , I mean. She's not my _Tante_ anymore."

"Did you have contact with her after Wexgate Boulevard?"

She paused smearing her bottom lip with dark plum lipstick. "I have to finish—"

"Please, Juvia."

She huffed. "I saw her a few times a week."

"For?"

"Are you sure _Tante_ Eileen said this was alright?"

"Nothing you say will get back to her," Laxus promised.

"Because if it does, she'll kill me."

Jellal put his notepad away. "I swear to you we won't get you into trouble."

She smacked her lips together then pulled at the robe's tie around her waist. It dropped to the ground and she picked up a blue lacy dress off the armchair next to the vanity and stepped into it without an ounce of shame. "I saw her sometimes because _Tante_ Eileen thought it would bother Kyouka."

"What do you mean?"

"Sometimes, I'd have partners in front of her. Girls, boys," she said. "Sometimes we'd get high. Sometimes, Kyouka would be allowed to get high, too. And sometimes she wasn't. She got addicted, like me, and having it right under your nose is the worst thing you can imagine."

" _Tante_ Eileen got her addicted?"

Juvia said nothing as she buttoned up the front of her dress, so Laxus took that as a yes.

"She can hold a grudge, eh?" Laxus said lowly.

Juvia looked at him from behind the curtain of her hair. "You have no idea."

"Did you ever speak to Kyouka on your own?"

"I wasn't allowed to be with her alone."

"I need a yes or no answer, Juvia."

She looked at them sidelong. "You're sure I'm not going to get into trouble?"

Laxus fished some patience from _somewhere_. "Positive."

" _Tante_ Erza once asked me to go down and give her water."

Laxus didn't look Jellal's way but he felt his partner stiffen. He supposed it would be a rude awakening to know that the woman you'd been sharing your bed with for the last six months was keeping this kind of secret from you. "She didn't go with you?"

She shook her head. " _Tante_ Erza didn't like it that Kyouka was here. It made her uncomfortable."

After Kyouka tried to feed her to the Cardinal, Laxus supposed so. "What happened when you went down there?"

"Kyouka wouldn't take the water. She spat it out at me and told me to leave. I did because I didn't want to be caught down there by _Tante_ Eileen."

"That's it?"

"Yes."

"She didn't ask you to help her escape?"

"No. She was angry with me by then. She thought I was a coward. Maybe she was right. She was my matriarch for years. She saved me. And I didn't do anything because I was afraid of _Tante_ Eileen."

"I don't know. _Tante_ Eileen haunts my dreams more than Kyouka ever did," Laxus muttered and Juvia smiled a little.

"She has a talent."

Laxus tried to keep on track. "Alright, Juvia. Can we talk about the note?"

Her eyes got wide as a thought occurred to her. "Does _Tante_ Eileen know about the note?"

"No."

"Because—"

"She'll kill you, got it," Laxus said.

She was jittery after that. It took three tries to got on a tall dark blue boot.

"Juvia—"

"It's not a joke."

"Of course not. Sorry. I have a penchant for using sarcasm as humor in tense situations. It's a bad trait," he said, rhyming off results of the last psych evaluation he had to go through after he shot his father.

Juvia was tall already; her boots gave her an added three inches so now she was almost even with Jellal. She was willowy and as pale as milk and in the right light, she looked beautiful, not sick with withdrawal. She stared Laxus down with no-nonsense and said, "I was told only to go to Huntsman."

"The street?"

"Yes."

"Address?"

"There was none."

"But you went to the street."

"Yes. I walked by it."

"See anything?"

"There was a house but I didn't go in and no one came out."

"Do you remember which one?"

"I could point it out," she said.

"Now?"

She shook her head. "No. I need to see Acnologia now."

"This is more important than appeasing one of _Tante_ Eileen's business partners."

"Potential partners. And to you, it is," Juvia said. "This is my life, though, and if I don't do what _Tante_ Eileen says, she'll make things go bad for me."

"Tell her you're sick?"

"She'll never believe me."

And he couldn't tear her away without arising suspicion. "Can we meet afterwards then?"

She gnawed on her lip.

"Please, Juvia."

She buckled. "Okay. Alright. We'll meet afterwards and I'll take you there."

"When are you done?"

"I'll call," she said.

Jellal's phone dinged. He looked at it. "That was Porla's protection unit. They said they were on the move. Porla's going to dinner first, then heading here."

"Alright. Let's get downstairs then."

Juvia blocked their way. "Remember your promise. _Tante_ Eileen doesn't know what we talked about."

"Our lips are sealed," Laxus said.

Juvia opened the door and went out first. There were a few more bodies downstairs than before, men and women sitting at the bar and drinking, others at round tables near the front where some dancers and a small band were setting up.

Laxus tried to both keep his head down while he descended and look at everywhere at once. Everyone stood out, flashy and well-dressed in one way or another. Cana was still at the bar serving drinks, Angel was still at the door searching people, and _Tante_ Eileen was standing in the centre of the room, waiting for Juvia. She took her by the shoulders and spun her around, examining her right there and then. She fixed Juvia's lipstick with a swipe of her thumb and smiled in a way that was almost endearing. Laxus wasn't fooled and he didn't think Juvia was, either; beneath that smile was someone cold.

He watched them move to the front. _Tante_ Eileen waved to a person standing in front of the large room she kept for coats. They went in and came out with a long tan one. She put it on for Juvia and then ushered her outside. Laxus caught sight of a shiny black car before the door closed and took her from sight. _Tante_ Eileen didn't re-enter the building.

Jellal returned to the bar and got two more beers, then chose the same table they'd had before. Laxus took the seat facing the doorway, Jellal took the one facing the bar. "Where do you think _Tante_ Eileen's going?"

"With Juvia?" Jellal suggested.

"I don't know. Maybe. Things have seemed pretty strained between them lately."

"I can see why. Juvia was Kyouka's when Kyouka worked here. What's she supposed to do with her? Fire her? Then she's out on the street selling secrets to the highest bidder. And it takes effort to kill a person; it's risky."

"She's fucked."

"Things aren't looking good for her."

Laxus asked, "What do you think of Juvia's story?"

"What do you mean?"

"Do you think she was telling the truth? About the drugs and the fucking just to piss Kyouka off?"

"Yeah."

"That's kidnapping, aggravated assault, obstruction of justice and probably a hundred other charges I can't think of off the top of my head."

"We told Juvia it wouldn't come back on her," Jellal said.

"Yep. And you told Eileen that Kyouka would probably be talking garbage if and when we pick her up."

" _Tante_ ," he emphasised, "and we needed her cooperation."

"There's pushing the line and then there's willfully crossing it," Laxus groused quietly. "If Ultear finds out about this we're _cooked_."

Jellal didn't look at him. "Guess she better not find out."

"Have you gone crazy?"

"Kyouka deserves everything she gets."

"I thought you were over this fucking vendetta thing? I thought you chose the side of good over evil? You were going to _arrest_ her."

"I'm _still_ going to arrest her," Jellal said. "I'm just not sad about anything that happened to her in between."

Jellal pushed his 'morally grey' toward the black infrequently but when he did, Laxus almost didn't recognize him. "Maybe we should ask the Captain to reassign us."

Jellal said a short and terse, "No."

Laxus chugged back half of his beer to avoid following that up with anything. A waitress came by and asked them if they wanted a food menu. Laxus ordered Ruben fritters. Jellal got a beef and Guinness pie.

Halfway through his meal, Laxus broke the tense silence. "What do you think about this book breach?"

"Someone close to the _Tante_ , an employee for sure," Jellal said. "Someone she wouldn't necessarily scold for being in her office."

"Clive's been in there the last few times I've been in."

"And Angel's probably irate her sister got killed in the line of duty," Jellal said. "Mira's got a bone to pick and Erza doesn't want to be _Tante_. Juvia's _Tante_ Eileen's scapegoat and is literally sleeping with _Tante_ Eileen's enemy."

Jellal may have sounded snarky but he was talking and that was good enough for Laxus. "Acnologia is a potential business partner."

" _Tante_ Eileen tries to get into his head with Juvia, Acnologia turns the tables around and uses Juvia to against her. She swipes copies of the book, and…"

"And sells them to Acnologia who gives them to Kyouka who's only been out of imprisonment for a few days? That doesn't account for the other killings," Laxus said.

"What the _fuck_. We're missing something. We're missing something big. Another player."

"Kyouka's allies," Laxus said.

"Most of them are dead. And the ones that weren't just skipped out on their incarcerations. It's someone who's been free this entire time."

More and more it seemed they were going to have to look closer to home.

The front door opened and Jose Porla entered with two plainclothes by his side. Erza was right there to greet him. She'd been taking lessons from her mother and took his hand and kissed his cheek. The smile he gave her was greasy. Laxus spent less time looking at them and more time looking at the people around the room. Was there anyone that seemed interested in his entry?

A man by the stage looked over, but Laxus was pretty sure he was looking at Erza and not Jose. When they walked through the room, a few other people glanced their way, but no one fixated. Laxus looked high. Mira was on the loft floor, sitting with her legs between the bannisters. She caught his eye and waggled her fingers. Laxus looked on without engaging.

Jellal lifted his wrist to his mouth and said lowly into his com, "We have eyes on him. Check the room and then you can fall back."

A voice came through in Laxus' ear saying, "Roger that."

A brunette at the bar lifted her face and trained her eyes on Porla's back. Something about the way she looked at him made Laxus uncomfortable. "Six o'clock."

"I see her," Jellal said.

The woman rose. Laxus stiffened, waiting for her to make a move. She pounded back the rest of her drink, dropped money on the bar, and then put the door in her sights.

"I want to follow her."

"Be careful," Jellal warned, and Laxus figured maybe they were still friends.

He tried to be as uninteresting as possible crossing through the bar. A few people looked him over, never for very long, though. He pulled his wrinkled cigarette from behind his ear and pushed out into the wintery air in only his sweater because he wanted to be able to get out his gun easily if need be.

It was lightly snowing, a thin sheen of dusty powder gathering on the sidewalk and roadway. There was a pair of narrow footprints in the snow. Laxus cautiously followed them around the side of the building. He found the brunette leaning against the wall, a phone in one hand and a joint in the other.

"Hey."

She startled and almost dropped her phone. She fumbled it out of the air and caught it. Then she laughed. "You scared me."

"Sorry." He held up his cigarette. "Got a light?"

"Yeah."

Laxus took the green Bic from her hand and struck it. The flint sparked twice, then the flame caught. He felt that hollow pit in his lungs as he breathed in a shallow mouthful of smoke and let it out gradually. His mouth watered and his head spun immediately. It would pass. Just like the nausea would pass. Hell. How did he ever smoke, to begin with?

He swallowed once more for good measure. "Are you a regular here?"

She shrugged.

"Good music."

"I came for the girls," she said.

"Oh. Yeah. I used to go to Black Glove but…"

"I've been," she said briskly and Laxus appreciated how awkward it was to grill someone about pleasure houses while trying to be casual and not come off as a cretin.

"Do you have a favourite?" As soon as he asked, he realized he should have let Jellal come out. He was better at this. Much, much better.

Amazingly, she didn't run away. "This is actually my first time. Everyone was really nice, though."

"Good. I've only been in the orchid room but Somnium has a good reputation."

"Everything I've heard about it recently says otherwise."

"The poisoner?"

"They're targeting Somnium, aren't they?"

"But you still came?"

"You did, too." Though she smiled, the expression was completely flat. Laxus put her in the 'psycho' box. Apathetic, false. Sociopath? Meredy would have a fucking field day with this chick.

"Yeah. I guess so." Laxus laughed. "I'm Terry, by the way," he chose a name randomly.

"Nice to meet you, Terry. I'm going to head back in. Excuse me." she dropped her roach in the snow where it fizzled out and walked away without offering her name.

"Fuck." Laxus pulled on his cigarette again for no other reason than it was there. His head had stopped spinning and his mouth had stopped watering, though now he had a headache.

His phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw Jellal's name on the screen and a text that said _, Is she clean_?

_Dunno_ , he wrote back. _She's weird and she was upstairs, though. Chase down Erza and see who she was seeing_? _I'll get eyes on her again, try to hit her up at the bar._

Jellal didn't respond so Laxus took that as a _sure_. He finished his cigarette and flicked it toward the place where the brick wall met the cement ground. It fizzled like the roach had in the soggy snow.

Laxus was already on alert when he stepped around the side of the building, Somnium had that effect on him, so as he came around the corner, he was more prepared for the gun that pushed into his chest than he would have been at another location.

He stepped back, grabbed the person's wrist, and turned the weapon in one go. The gun still went off but the bullet dug into the wall and not his chest cavity. He hit his attacker's wrist hard and they dropped their gun. Then he grabbed their bicep and threw them against the wall. It was easier than he'd expected, the person slight and light. _Woman_ , his mind catalogued. She hit and the breath exploded from her lungs.

Most people would need a moment. She brought her pointy elbow back with force and hit Laxus in the ribs twice in quick succession. He adjusted and grabbed her arms and wrenched them over her head. She wiggled and lifted her foot in an attempt to kick him in his soft bits. She got him in the thigh and that was just about as painful.

"Enough!" Laxus growled and pushed her in tighter against the wall so she couldn't move. She stopped struggling so much; Laxus dug for his cuffs on his belt. "You're under arrest for assaulting a police officer."

"You're wasting your time."

"You have the right to remain silent."

"If you go in now, you might catch the show."

"Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law."

Somnium's front door banged open and a person stumbled out. They bent at the waist and vomited right out front of the door.

Laxus identified Jose Porla when he fell to his knees in the halo of a streetlight. "Fuck."

The door banged open again and Jellal came rushing out, talking loudly on his phone.

Laxus' charge took advantage of the situation, throwing her head back into his nose. He felt it pop and then he was soaked in blood. He loosened his hold on her and she slithered from his grip. Her bony elbow dug into his ribs again and then she was moving, back into the alley behind Somnium.

"Stop!"

She kept on.

"Stop!" Laxus tried again. She was almost at the back of the building. He lifted his gun and aimed at her leg. The gun recoiled and in his mind, he saw his old man go down instead of the girl. He was frozen for just a moment, but in that time, a car had squealed to a stop behind the building and a man got out. He grabbed her up and yanked her inside the vehicle.

Laxus could move again. He aimed and fired. The car's window smashed out. Another shot dug into the man somewhere, Laxus knew because he saw the blood fly up in the glow of the streetlamp. It wasn't a fatal hit, though, the car still spun out and zagged down the road.


	16. Chapter 16

**_ XVI: Jellal _ **

Jellal leaned against the front bumper of his Charger and watched his partner smoke around a uniformed paramedic taping his nose—the same paramedic he'd swiped the cigarette off of, actually. Jellal would have thought someone that answered emphysema calls on the regular would be a little more reticent about sucking tar but he supposed it was a stressful job. Like the cops, no one ever called paramedics because they were having a good day.

Laxus flicked the cigarette butt away and started across the parking lot.

"Well?" Jellal asked when he was within hearing range.

"It's broken." His voice was nasally and still somehow managed to sound grumpy.

"Ultear's not going to let you get away from an incident report."

"Nope. And then there're the ones for the shots fired. I'm going to be filling out forms until I'm in my grave."

"And you're smoking again."

Laxus gave him a warning look. "It was one cigarette. That hardly counts for _smoking again._ "

It was not _just one_. His cigarette was gone from his ear, he'd smelled like smoke when he'd come to Jellal's side earlier when Porla first went down, and Jellal watched him sneak behind a dumpster while the paramedics worked. By his count, this was number three. Meaning, he'd be looking for another soon enough.

"Did you talk to the Captain?"

"Yeah," Jellal said. "Good news is we still have our jobs. The bad news is she wants us in her office pronto."

"Hell."

"Yeah. And Somnium's closed until further notice."

"We're dead men," Laxus lamented.

He figured he should get the bad news over with. "I talked to a tech. Mira had mints in her room. They were the delivery method."

Laxus swiped his hand over his face. "Fuck. Mints? Really?"

"Really. The only good news is that Erza said your girl there was Mira's first customer of the night, an early bird that spent double to get some of her time before the evening crowd arrived. We can't totally discount Mira, but it's looking like maybe we have another option."

"But how did she get the poison in the mints? Mira was _with_ her in the room."

"Apparently, just a few minutes before we got there, there was a commotion downstairs. Someone came into Somnium screaming about Lisanna Strauss and Mira."

"What about them?" Laxus asked.

"They were accusing Mira of helping her sister escape and poisoning her own clients."

"Do we have an ID on this guy?"

"No. I'm thinking it was the same guy that swung by to grab that girl, though, and we only have one male suspect so far, and—another bit of good news—Gildarts took care of it, so we could show him a picture, get an ID."

Laxus held up his hand. "Gildarts took care of it or _took care of it_?"

"Can you just say killed?"

"I was going for subtlety."

Jellal rolled his eyes. "Just the regular sort of took care of. He dragged the guy out, they got into a physical altercation in the parking lot."

"And Gildarts _didn't_ kill him?"

"Maybe he would have but Erza said he got hit in the head with a hunk of ice pretty hard."

"That must have been some piece of ice."

"I guess. The guy took off after. _Tante_ Eileen told Gildarts to go to the hospital to get checked out."

"So that's why he wasn't here."

"Seems like."

"Why didn't _Tante_ Eileen say anything about this when we were in her office? We could have had people looking for this guy."

"Too proud?" Jellal offered.

"Or she lied and actually sent Gildarts back out after him and didn't want any trails leading back to her."

"We could ask him now," Jellal nodded to the black 1970 Oldsmobile 442 that peeled into the parking lot.

"What about the Captain?"

His partner didn't look like the golden boy but he rarely bent the rules. "We'll be quick." And if they had some good information, maybe Ultear would go a little easier on them.

The Olds screeched to a stop beside _Tante_ Eileen, who had arrived moments ago, alone, from whatever venture she deemed important enough to leave her club for. Jellal was watching their altercation so he saw her swipe something off her cheek. He didn't think she was the sentimental type, so he had to assume that was frustration making her eyes wet. That made him cautious. _Tante_ Eileen was a flint sparking over gasoline on the best of days.

She turned as they approached. Her face looked pale in the pulsing red and blue of police lights. "What?"

"We need to ask Mister Clive some questions, _Tante_ ," Jellal said.

"He's busy."

"It'll only take a moment."

She shook her head. "I said no. Get out of my sight. In fact, get off my property."

Delicately, Jellal said, "This is a crime scene. I have every right to be here."

Gildarts touched _Tante_ Eileen's elbow lightly and said, "I'll answer their questions. It'll get them out of here quicker. Go take care of the other business."

_Tante_ Eileen had one last severe scowl for both Laxus and Jellal and then she turned on her heel and walked quickly towards where her escorts all stood huddled together in various stages of undress. Some had thermal blankets around their shoulders, some were warm enough in their coats.

Jellal wanted to nose in on the coming exchange, _Tante_ Eileen had her eyes honed on Mira, but that wasn't his concern, not then.

Gildarts' voice was somehow both impatient and flat. "Make it quick."

"You kicked a guy out of Somnium shortly before we arrived this evening," Jellal said.

"Yeah." He turned his head to the side and Jellal saw he had stitches holding a piece of skin together above his ear. The place was swollen. It looked painful. "There was a slab of ice sitting on the dumpster. Wasn't expecting it."

"Tell me about him?"

"He was some nut job. It happens. They come in screaming about one thing or another, and I kick them out."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Just last week, we had some church-goers knocking on our door and screaming about sin."

It wasn't all of them but Jellal knew the type; he saw a lot of it when he used to call the Prayer home. "Erza told me he said some pointed stuff about Mira."

Gildarts shrugged. "I told you, the guy was crazy."

"Would you be able to identify him if you saw a picture?" Jellal asked.

"I never forget a face."

"Give me a sec." Jellal jogged back to his car and snagged the employee file from the asylum out from between the passenger's seat and the console. On his way back, he heard _Tante_ Eileen raise her voice and spit out, "You're done." He looked over and saw a red-eyed Mira. She looked too upset to respond. Erza hissed something in her mother's face and _Tante_ Eileen pushed her. A uniform stepped in between them and broke it up before it could turn into a full-blown fight. He caught Laxus looking, too, and blocked the scene with his body. The last place he needed to be was in the middle of all that.

Jellal flipped the file open to Bickslow's picture and worked it from the paperclip holding it in place. Gildarts took it and lifted it to the lamplight. "Yeah, that's him. Tall guy. Gangly. Strong though."

"That's because he's an orderly," Jellal said. "Or he was. He cut out on his job shortly after Lisanna Strauss broke out of the asylum."

"Well, that's a bit of interesting information," Gildarts said.

"You don't know where he went?"

He shook his head. "I really did get brained."

"And you didn't report it?" Laxus asked.

"Nope."

"'Cause you wanted to take care of it on your own?"

"Like I said, skids come in all the time looking to cause problems, Dreyar. I don't have time to skin them all." He grinned; Laxus didn't receive his joke well.

"Don't fuck with me, Clive. I've had a bad night."

"You should hold off on your intimidating talk until your nose is a little better, you sound like my daughter did when she'd go swimming and forget to plug her nose."

"Fuck you."

Gildarts winked. Jellal interrupted. "Do you remember the car this guy was driving?"

"An Impala?" Gildarts suggested. "White, I think."

So he traded in the Volkswagen. Jellal doubted it was an above-board swap. They'd check and see if any cars had been reported stolen, keep a lookout for them—starting with the driveways on Huntsman when Juvia took them that way. He had a good feeling about this. They were getting close. "Thanks."

"Hey. You know how long they're going to keep our doors closed for?" Gildarts asked.

"I'll look into it."

"The sooner we can get up and running again, the better it'll be for everyone," Gildarts told him. " _Tante_ Eileen gets antsy when she's not busy."

"Got it." Jellal felt his phone ringing in his pocket again. He knew without a doubt that it was Ultear calling, wondering where they were. "Listen, can we talk to some of the other employees? I need to ask questions about the book that had Mira's scheduling and—"

Gildarts was already shaking his head. "That's not a boat you want to rock, not tonight."

"This can't wait," Jellal said.

"Captain says it can," Laxus interjected. He had his phone out and was looking at the screen. His mouth was a flat line and his eyes were crinkled at the corners. "We have to hit the road."

"We're not done," Jellal said. "I have questions for you, Clive, about the day Kyouka was poisoned."

"I don't know anything about that," he lied. "Was never there."

"Gildarts—"

"Does your report say different?"

"No, but we both know—"

He shrugged. "Sorry."

A car pulled into the parking lot. Though it was unmarked, Jellal saw the cherry in the rear windshield and got a sinking feeling in his gut.

Two men exited the car, one with dark hair, one blonde. Laxus said, "That's our relief."

"Fuck," Jellal muttered just as soon as he'd identified them. "Did she really do this?"

"We need to leave," was Laxus' only response.

"I'm not giving my case up to fucking Major Crimes," Jellal groused.

"We don't have a choice."

"Who're these clowns?" Gildarts asked.

The nearest interloper, the dark haired one, heard and introduced himself as, "Detective Cheney. This is my partner, Detective Eucliffe. We'll be taking control of this case now. Detectives, please pass along all the evidence you've collected and any contacts you have."

"No," Jellal heard himself say.

"What's that?" Eucliffe asked.

Jellal decided to go with it. "This is our case; we're not just passing it off." His phone was ringing again and Major Crimes heard it.

"I think that's your Captain, Fernandez. You should get it."

"That's fine," Jellal said. "I think there was a mistake, you aren't supposed to be here so—"

Jellal's phone quieted and Laxus' phone started up, his ringtone was still the Final Countdown and it was piercingly loud.

"Haven't you changed that fucking thing yet?" Jellal snapped.

Laxus shook his head and took a step back to answer his call. Jellal could hear Ultear screeching through the phone into Laxus' ear. Laxus suddenly turned into a yes man, telling her, "We just got hung up. We'll be right in." He pressed end and told Jellal, "We have to get moving."

Jellal primed an objection.

"Now," Laxus said before he could get a word out. "Before the Captain makes good on her threat and sends a unit to bring us in."

"You have to be fucking kidding me," Jellal muttered.

Gildarts gave a wry smile. "It's been fun, Fernandez."

"We're not done," Jellal said.

"You are," Cheney contradicted and took the casefile right from Jellal's hands. "This is the guy we're looking for?"

Laxus said, "That's him. He helped our poisoner escape. We think he swapped his Golf for a white Impala. I'll send the rest by email."

"Not a chance in hell." Jellal swiped for the file, Laxus pushed him in the centre of the chest none-too-gently.

"Let's go."

Jellal pushed him back; Laxus was like a concrete pillar, ready for the retaliation, which only made Jellal angrier. And embarrassed, which perhaps was Laxus' intention.

"Let's _go_."

Jellal shoved past him in disgust and made for his Charger. He passed by Erza and Mira almost blindly, though somewhere in his mind, he catalogued that they were huddled together and speaking quietly. Mira was crying, Erza was glaring at her mother and then Jellal in turn like it was his fault. The problem was, he couldn't blame her. He thought they'd thought of everything, but Mira's early walk-in had slipped beneath his radar. She'd had guards upstairs, the room had been searched, the food and the drink checked for tampering, but those damn mints.

"Stop stewing on it," Laxus said.

"I'm not."

"Alright, if that's how you want to play it. I'm just trying to help you out."

Jellal yanked open the car door and said over the roof before getting in, "Helping would be not just handing our case over when we're so fucking close." He may have been speaking too loudly; there was a paramedic that was looking their way.

Laxus pulled open his own door and got inside. Only then did he say, "We don't have another option. The Captain's calling us back to the precinct, Major Crimes has already familiarized themselves with the damn case, it's either go back peacefully and sit through whatever Ultear's got to say or go rogue."

Jellal puffed out his cheeks.

"No," Laxus said definitively. "Just no."

"You don't even know what I was going to say," Jellal muttered. Laxus didn't dignify that with a response.

They drove the distance in silence, Jellal didn't bother with the radio. Occasionally, Laxus would check his phone. Jellal never heard it vibrate so he assumed that it was the lack of texting that was getting his partner's back up. Mira was giving him the silent treatment. Likely not on purpose, she probably had a lot of things on her mind, but it was affecting him all the same.

The precinct came out of the dark, looking like a beacon lit up by incandescent lights. It was older than the other precincts and hadn't developed the modern fluorescent tube lights. Jellal hoped it never would, either, it felt much homier this way.

He put his car in the parking garage around the side of the building and he and Laxus entered the station together through the locked back door, gaining entry by swiping his ID card over the card reader.

Ultear was in her usual stance, leaning over the bannister and looking down on the civilians and police alike from on high. She spotted Jellal and Laxus the moment they stepped into the busier-than-normal room and stood straight and retreated into her office. Jellal took the stairs one at a time, in no rush for the argument he was sure he was about to get into. Laxus was right behind him.

Ultear was sitting behind her desk by the time they'd both made it in. Her hands were crossed on the tidy surface and her hair was gathered back from her face in a low ponytail.

"Sit," she said briskly.

Jellal chose the chair on the left.

She looked them over shrewdly. "Do you want to tell me what happened out there tonight?"

"Do you want to tell me why our case is sitting in the hands of Major Crimes?" Jellal volleyed back.

"What choice did I have?" Ultear asked.

"To give up our case or to not."

"This went above my head," she said. "Word got out about Porla, and I was told the case was going to someone else."

"You could have said no."

Her jaw clenched and her fingers curled, belying her patience. "I have a millionaire, a high-profile businessman, a mayor and the head of the Magnolia bank in my fucking morgue. You've had your chance. It's time to let someone else get a crack at it."

"It looks bad."

"It looks fucking pathetic."

"Yes. Okay. But Captain, we're almost there." Jellal knew he was pushing it but his mouth wouldn't stop moving. "We have some solid leads, Gray's looking into the supplier avenue, we've got this Bickslow guy to shake down, Laxus is going to work with the sketch artist to ID our mystery girl in case we can't get any match on her prints from the gun we took off of her, we're moving _forward_."

Ultear checked the clock on her computer. "Get down there now, Dreyar. He was called in to work on a B and E case but this is more important. Send the results to Cheney."

Jellal threw his hands into the air. "Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously. The Nightshade killings are Major Crime's problem now. Everything you have is to be sent to them."

There was no way she was shifting from that stance, Jellal could see. "Well, what about the Strauss case?" Laxus stiffened beside him.

"I thought you said it was all interconnected?" Ultear whittled.

"I had a hunch," Jellal said.

"You sounded pretty convinced yesterday morning."

"I may have stretched the truth a little because I didn't want you to take us off the case. I'm less sure now, though."

"You are un-fucking-believable."

He shrugged unapologetically. It was the best way to go with Ultear; if she smelled blood in the water, you were done for. "Can we keep it?"

She shook her head. "That goes to Cheney and his partner, too. If they think it's connected, they'll work it."

"And if not?"

"You're a _homicide_ detective."

"And Lisanna Strauss is a _convicted killer_. Homicide territory. We've dealt with her before, we have the connections. We can find her better than Major Crimes can."

He had her, he could see it. She was still reluctant, though. "I'll think about it _if_ Major Crimes decide not to work that avenue."

"Thanks, Captain."

"Don't thank me; I'm trying to save our reputation and you're determined to drag it through the mud."

She was as prickly as a thorn. "Did Gray talk to you?" Jellal pushed. "About Kyouka?"

"He did, and I'll tell you what I told him. Coroners in this city are overworked, they make mistakes, things get misfiled all the time. On top of that, Kyouka's body was supposed to be cremated. One bit of ash looks just like the next, so who's to say? We need unquestionable proof that she's alive."

"Juvia Lockser's been getting notes from her."

"One unsigned note. Can anyone cohobate her story?"

Jellal thought of _Tante_ Eileen and his promise to keep her confidence. He wasn't sure if she would be cooperative anymore but just in case, he didn't want to burn any bridges just yet. "No." Could be, Laxus was right, he was stepping way over the line by keeping that secret.

"So your only source is a girl that's addicted to Fentanyl and prone to delusions, and the Coroner that performed the autopsy is dead." She put her hands into the air. "Unless Kyouka shows her face, sounds like we have a lot of nothing."

Jellal put his head in his hands and scrubbed his hair, frustrated.

"It happens, Fernandez, don't let it eat at you."

"I need to get to that sketch artist." Laxus stood and Ultear held up her hand in a _wait_ fashion.

"Get your reports in tonight and then both of you take tomorrow off."

"Captain—" Jellal began.

"If you come in, you'll be suspended," she said with finality.

It wasn't in his nature to argue with her but Jellal felt irrational just then. He stamped it all down. His hands really would be tied if she suspended him.

"And make _sure_ all of your stuff gets sent to Eucliffe and Cheney. I'll be checking."

Jellal left her office without acknowledgement. Laxus went left and down the stairs to find the sketch artist, and Jellal went to his desk. The bullpen was full with the nightshift.

Wally, who sat two desks over, lifted his strong-featured face. "Bad luck with your case, eh, boss?"

Jellal ignored him, too, and got to work compiling everything Major Crimes might need to catch the Nightshade killer.

* * *

Jellal put his car in his designated parking spot and got out. He thought it was to go through the front door and up the elevator to his apartment but his feet had other ideas, bringing him right, down the street to a dark corner of the city, a parking garage on Sumac.

Concrete sloped downwards first, then evened out into a wide space that smelled like old alcohol, cigarette butts, piss and ancient engine oil. It used to curl his nose but he'd been here enough times now that the smell was almost comforting. Walking into it was like walking into something familiar.

There were no lights inside, except those that leached in through the single entrance and exit, meaning the world was a weird amalgamation of grey and pink light.

Jellal trod lightly over broken glass and McDonald's garbage and felt like he was entering the belly of a beast. Faint music played, the lyrics telling him,

_Take, take everything_

He followed the sound deeper inside, past a teenager leaning against one of the concrete pillars, smoking. Jellal locked eyes with them and they vacated.

_I like the night (don't have to hear you when you speak)  
And I like the night (somebody's got to find what you seek)_

There was a wall where new graffiti had been painted, a naked woman with her back turned, a strap of leather in her two hands and stretched out beneath her behind, and that's where Jellal found her.

_Oh, I like the night (all alone, where is it you've been?)  
You don't wanna wait_

Her back was to him and her hands were up over her eyes like she was playing peekaboo with the wall. She'd changed into a leather jacket and a pair of dark jeans. Tall boots were on her feet and, when she dropped her hands from her face, Jellal saw she wore fingerless gloves.

"I didn't know you came here on your own."

Erza said, "When I need to think."

"Aren't you worried?"

She slipped her hand into her pocket and pulled out a silver revolver. "No."

"Where did that come from?"

"Gildarts gave it to me when Kyouka got free," she said simply; Jellal though he'd have to try harder to get that out of her.

"You should have told me about her."

Erza put the gun back in her pocket. "What would you have done?"

He remembered the yells he heard drifting through Somnium's floor on occasion and knew the answer was _nothing._ He didn't like who he was when he thought that.

"It was better when you didn't know. You didn't know that you liked what was happening."

"I never said that."

"You never had to." She drifted from one topic to the next like she was caught in the current of the ocean. "Somnium's closed, you know?"

"Yeah."

"The other bordellos are going to be making a killing if they decide to stay open."

"Why wouldn't they?"

She lifted her shoulder. "People are scared. They're saying it's the Cardinal all over again."

"It's not."

"I know. That's just what they're saying, though."

"The hype will die down."

"If my mother lets it."

"She seemed pretty upset."

"She fired Mira."

"I heard. Where did she go?"

"What makes you think I know?"

Jellal took her hand and pulled her around so she was facing him. She'd been in dark makeup; now it was smeared down her cheeks, the tips of her fingers dark from rubbing it. "You and Mira are a united force."

"She's safe," she said eventually.

"How do you know?"

"It's my job as _Tante_ to make sure of it."

"Does Laxus know?"

"If Mira wants him to," she said.

"Okay."

She looked at him suspiciously, as if daring him to ask anything more. When he didn't, she bent at the waist and picked up a bottle of tequila he hadn't seen on the floor and drank right from the neck. She swallowed twice and handed it over. "You lost your case."

Jellal drank to that.

"The men that took it are twits."

He drank to that, too.

"They think Mira's the killer."

"What about the girl?"

"This is the easy answer and the one that makes sense."

He didn't know why he was surprised. Major Crimes was concerned with closing hard cases quickly. "Are you worried they're right?"

"I don't have to be worried about Mira's dark secrets because we share them all."

"That's not an answer."

She looked him straight in the eye. "Mira never killed those men."

The music changed and Alice Merton's _No Roots_ came on. Erza tipped her head back like an exalted queen and Jellal determined that the first quarter of the bottle wasn't sold in Somnium but consumed here. She was well on her way to being drunk and danced slowly with her hands over her head to prove it.

"They'll move on once they gather their evidence," Jellal told her.

Erza peeped at him from between her lashes. "Yes. They'll find their killer soon."

Was she overconfident? It was hard to tell. Jellal asked, "Where did your mother go tonight?"

"To see Zeref."

"While Juvia went to see Acnologia."

"She thinks she can play them both." Erza spun slowly.

"You don't think she can?"

She looked back over her shoulder. "I think there's a bear trap closing on her and she's too proud to realize it."

"What do you mean?"

"I thought this wasn't your case anymore?"

"It's not."

"Then what does it matter?"

It didn't, he supposed. "Just wondering."

She faced him again and smiled. Her eyes were glossy and her lips were matted with red and her hair was knotted and messy. She was sloppy and he didn't think she'd ever been lovelier. "Good."

Erza took another drink of tequila then stepped back toward the wall, more into the shadows. Jellal followed her. His hands gravitated toward her waist and the loose fitting and deeply cut grey shirt she wore. The material felt like water in his fingers and beneath it, Erza was cold. She didn't shiver until he put his lips to her neck, though, and then he figured it was from pleasure. She smelled like winter air and hairspray and someone else's perfume.

Erza bowed into him and put her arms around his shoulders. He could feel her tipping the tequila into her mouth again and her throat bobbing as she swallowed. He ignored it and pulled her shirt down and her breasts out; there was no bra to fight with, she was just bare and her skin was lifted in goosebumps. He kissed her collarbone and the tops of her breasts and then the very tips. She moaned and it was the hectic, exaggerated kind, not because she was faking it but because when she was drinking, everything was just that little bit extra.

Erza pulled him up and did what she almost _never_ did and kissed him, leaving ghosts of her lipstick on his mouth. She pushed him away just as fast, reversing their positions so he was against the wall. Then Erza pushed the tequila bottle into his hands and Jellal drank again. He felt the warmth stretch through his extremities, a feeling that intensified as Erza crouched and started working on his pants.

Jellal looked down to watch. Her expression was hard to read. Intense, maybe. She was very focused on this, but also relaxed, like the right side of her coat wasn't being weighted down with gun steel, like she wasn't crouched on a filthy floor, like the business she was inheriting wasn't collapsing down around her, like her best friend wasn't suspected of murder. She had everything under control.

She used two hands first and long, even strokes to make Jellal's mind empty. The cold winter air slipping down into the parking garage was forgotten the same way the man that passed through the building was forgotten too, just as soon as Jellal determined he was using it as a shortcut. Then Erza used her mouth.

For long minutes, Jellal watched her. She stopped only to tell him, "Keep drinking," like she wouldn't be satisfied until he was as sloppy as she was. He traded between drinking tequila and memorizing the feel of her tongue as she led him to a place he was eager to put the bottle down and take her by the hips. She stood, wiggled her pants down around her hips, and bent at the waist.

More than anything, Jellal wanted to slide into her but he took his time, stepping in close so he was pushing against her second entrance, and then finding all of her favourite spots and teasing sighs from her. She pushed back into him, forcing him to enter, and grabbed her own breasts. It must have hurt but she didn't seem to mind, pushing back further and further; her breathing became more erratic the deeper he went. She swore and called him something. He couldn't hear her, not over the roaring in his ears, though he assumed it was something mean, judging by the growl in her voice.

He pushed his hips into her harder and felt her come, her whole body stiffened, then went loose. She sobbed. Jellal breathed steadily so he didn't follow her example. When he felt it was safe to do so, he slowly adjusted, moving into the part of her body that was much more welcoming. She used a concrete pillar to keep her balance and her cries echoed off the ceiling and the floor.

He came on the ground when he was through, figuring it was the lesser of the two evils. Erza stood and righted her clothing. She did her leather jacket up all the way to her chin. Jellal took a moment to appreciate the euphoria. It was dimmed a bit at the sight of the gun Erza pulled out again. She checked the bullets like they'd miraculously disappear, then put it back away.

"Magnolia isn't safe on the best of days," Erza answered his unasked question. "But now my mother's trying to wheel and deal with two dangerous and influential men. If one of them finds out she's not being entirely _truthful_ , I'm the logical target. This is my insurance I won't be taken again."

She was remembering the Cardinal then, and the church he'd brought her to, a faraway look in her eye.

"Erza…"

She stooped and picked up the mostly empty tequila bottle and drank from it again. "My ride's here."

"Your ride?" Jellal asked numbly.

"Yeah." She wavered, then came in for a kiss that started out quick and ended sultrily. Jellal stopped trying to do up his pants so he could hold her close and kiss her properly. She denied him much opportunity, slipping out of range.

"Wait." Jellal did up his zipper and fixed his coat.

She was already halfway across the room and using long steps to get out of there quick. Her heels clunked on the floor decisively.

"Erza." Jellal jogged after her but was only quick enough to see her get into a black Lincoln Towncar. It was impossible to identify the driver, though he figured it was Gildarts. The car left a cloud of white smoke.

Jellal sighed and stuffed his hands into his pockets and started toward home. He wasn't far but he was tired and now cold despite the tequila; the wind tried to cut through him, making the journey feel like forever. He kept his eyes on the shadows and never saw anything out of the norm.

Beau waited for him, sleepy-eyed and this side of grumpy. He promised her attention tomorrow and apologized for being a shitty owner. She was quick with her forgiveness, groaning only when, after Jellal had drunk an entire Gatorade and fallen into bed, his phone buzzed and he shifted to answer it.

It was an unknown number on the screen and the text said, _we can meet tomorrow night at Warden. Ten._

He assumed it was Juvia and, despite all of Captain Milkovich's warnings to leave the case alone, typed back, _alright._

His eyes slid closed and another night of hectic dreaming carried him away. He still ran to no avail. He was still kissed by lips dripping poison. He opened his mouth and the only thing that came out was lies. He took Kyouka, skinny, bruised and scared, and fed her to the spider queen and felt sick for his lack of remorse.


	17. Chapter 17

**_ XVII: Juvia _ **

White granules sprinkled across the table and Juvia imagined that they were beach sand. Her hair was the ocean, the breaths of the man above her were waves; the smack of his skin against hers was those waves crashing against shore. She was lost in seconds. Her hair dusted through the cocaine and it disappeared, onto the floor, over the side of the Purpleheart table. She turned her head and watched it fall and got caught in the colours.

Blues and purples.

Blue hair, purple table.

Blue eyes, purple lips.

Blue was for bruises; purple was for love.

They went together like hand and glove.

Blues and purples.

_Slap, slap, slap._

_Gasp, gasp, gasp._

She closed her eyes because she felt the tide of this invisible ocean trying to pull her under. A hand planted between her breasts and slid down toward her middle. She felt it distantly, and the thumb between her legs, too, sliding over sensitive bits. It wasn't to make her come, Juvia realized after her back bent and she opened her eyes, it was to get her attention again. He liked to come while someone was watching him.

She remembered how to do her job and sat up. He pulled out, took off his condom and came on her belly and her chest. He hesitated before pulling away, rubbing his thumb through the mess and then seeking entry into her mouth. Beneath that bitter flavour, he tasted like sweat and cocaine.

She sucked his finger clean and he told her, " _Bella_." Then he kissed her and she added tasting himself to the list of things she could tell _Tante_ Eileen.

He pulled back and stood straight. His hair was fraying out of the neat braid it'd been in at the beginning of the night and his chest glistened with sweat. He pulled up his pants and disappeared down the hallway and up the stairs. Juvia waited until he was rummaging around in his rooms before checking her phone.

_We're closed_ , a text said. _Tell Acnologia I'd like to meet with him. Tomorrow morning. Nine_.

Juvia wrote back, _Yes,_ Tante _,_ and closed the app. She put her hair up and went to the downstairs washroom to get cleaned up, a room she'd discovered earlier that night. There was a standing shower with good water pressure and a bar of natural lemon soap.

Juvia dried using a large plush white towel and fixed her makeup in the huge wall-length mirror. It was hard to focus; the world was still spinning, but eventually, she thought she looked presentable.

Acnologia was in the kitchen again when she came out. His head was lowered to make a long white line vanish from the purple tabletop. There was a holster on his shoulder and his dark blue shirt was opened over his dark-skinned chest. It was winter but somehow, he was tanned. How many months did he spend away from Magnolia when the snow started falling from the sky?

He sniffed and offered her the glass tube. Juvia's skin itched; she scratched her arms and when she felt pain, she was comfortable enough to say, "No, thank you." She needed her head clearer.

He palmed the straw and nodded to a stack of money on the counter. "Half of that is yours, you need not give it to your _Tante._ "

It was too much and she told him so.

"Love is cheap. Secrets, though..."

"Thank you," Juvia said when she understood.

Acnologia cut right to the chase. "What does she ask you when you return to her?"

"What you like," Juvia said. He'd catch her in a lie.

"And you tell her?"

"The truth."

He looked this side of affronted, though he had to be expecting it. "Does she say why she wants to know?"

"I think she wants to know how to please you."

He laughed. "She eats men, _Bella,_ and caters to them only for that purpose. That's why she's called the Spider, not for her slyness nor her patience, though I'm sure she'd like us to believe that."

Juvia plucked at her dress. What would _Tante_ Erza do? She'd say what she needed to gain his trust and get out of there. "Women in our profession want to know what men like because it helps us understand you."

He pushed his thumb through some residual powder. "For what purpose?"

"I don't know. _Tante_ Eileen doesn't confide in me."

He stood and towered over Juvia when he was toe-to-toe with her. He lifted his hand and gently curled it around her throat. "I think you understand more than you let on. She thinks she can manipulate me, right? Or does she think she already has?"

"I don't know."

Acnologia acted like she hadn't spoken. "The logical option would be to take away the thing she thinks gives her power." His fingers tightened and tightened and tightened, biting into her throat until it was hard to breathe, and leaving marks. A slow tremor started in Juvia's shoulders. Fear, she thought, when she felt the urge to sputter and cough and gasp for air. She grabbed his wrist with both of her hands and felt his tendons stand out against the pads of her fingers.

She was on the verge of fighting back when Acnologia loosened his grip. He smoothed her hair back from her face with his free hand. His eyes betrayed none of his thoughts. Juvia closed her eyes so she didn't have to look at him anymore. " _Signore_ , please..."

He spoke in a clear calm voice. "It's wrong of us to use you as a tool but people like your _Tante_ and me, this is how we play the game. We move our pawns, knowing that they're in danger but needing to use them to take the next swing. And when things get messy, we wave our hand and the mess goes away. It seems unfair, doesn't it?"

Her tremors got more violent.

"Open your eyes."

She did. He studied her for a long time. All Juvia could see was his tattooed keloid scars and his danger. This was the man that slapped a knife into _Tante_ Erza's hand and walked away, and this was the Mafioso that owned more than half of Magnolia. However he presented himself, they were one in the same.

He was silent and calculating. Patient and unused to being played. His fingers slid down her cheek to her throat and all of it became very _real._ She knew that this time when he tightened his grip, he wouldn't let her go until she stopped breathing, if for no other purpose than to prove a point. He could be led astray by lilting words spoken in familiar accents, he could be coaxed into relaxation when the doors closed; but not for long. He'd never had anything to lose and wouldn't allow himself anything of true value, no love, no friendship, and that's why he was so dangerous.

Juvia tried to wrangle the situation before it could get out of hand and blurted, "My _Tante_ contacted me. She wants to meet. Tomorrow morning at nine, at this address." She rhymed it off for him. He didn't write it down and it was hard to say what he was thinking.

"Why there?"

Juvia practiced the words said to her. "She didn't say why only that Somnium was closed. She wants to deal but won't if I'm dead."

His fingers creaked and Juvia thought he'd kill her anyway. Then he released her and sat back in his chair.

A nervous laugh tried to take her. She set it aflame and focused on breathing while Acnologia fished his phone from his pocket. He tapped on the screen and in a moment, had an article pulled up. His eyes skimmed over it and his mouth betrayed his true feeling, its corners curling into a smile.

"Very well. Tell your _Tante_ I'll be there."

Juvia bowed her head. "Thank you, _Signore_. She'll be pleased."

"My driver's waiting for you out front."

And that was her dismissal. Juvia almost tripped over herself to get out.

Like Acnologia promised, there was a car sitting at the end of the driveway, running. She called her _Tante_ before getting into the back. "He agreed."

"Good. I arranged a room for you at Black Glove. You'll be safe there for tonight. Come to me first thing in the morning."

"Yes, _Tante_."

The phone hung up in her ear and Juvia got into the car.

* * *

The Black Glove made itself out to be a learned place. Immediately through the front doors was a sitting area, black satin chairs sitting on a black and white spiraled rug, and behind those was a wall of books. Some of them were so old, their pages would break to touch them.

The Matriarch, Asita, sat behind her desk, waiting to greet patrons. She was a woman beautiful beyond compare, with skin the colour of almonds and eyes shaped like tears. There were three shiny diamonds resting between her brows and a golden choker around her throat. She glimmered, a spot of light in the dark room as she moved around the desk and came to Juvia.

"Juvia." She made Juvia's name sound so exotic and for a moment, she felt like something more. Or maybe that was the residual cocaine. But did that really matter? "Your _Tante_ has taken care of everything. Come."

She took Juvia's hand and led her through the sitting room into a hallway just as dark. There was a set of stairs lit up by pot lights. On the second level was where all of the rooms were. Black Glove wasn't the same level of operation as Somnium. There was no entertainment, no bar that the customers could sit at, there was just row upon row of rooms.

_Tante_ Asita took her to the end of the hallway and used a key card to open the door. A large bed, a huge window, a mini fridge, two dressers, and a giant bathroom all laid out in front of her.

"There's dinner waiting for you there," she pointed to a trolley where a silver-capped plate awaited, "Help yourself to the mini bar and if you need anything, the phone is there." She pointed to the nightstand beside the bed where an old rotary-style phone waited.

"Thank you, _Tante_."

Her smile slipped some. "Your Matriarch's taken care of everything, but I need you gone by tomorrow morning."

"I'll leave by eight."

Asita backed out. Juvia locked the door behind her and looked around. The window looked out over a park and if she pressed her cheek against the glass and looked sideways, she could just barely see Magnolia's outdoor arena. It was brimming with skaters. Juvia looked on without shame for long moments.

She spotted a man and his daughter and watched them skate for a little while. The girl was much better than her father, who stuck out his hands to keep from falling and failed on more than one occasion. She wondered if Gray had put Aria in hockey yet or if she was even old enough to learn to skate. She fact-checked on her phone and found yes, she _could_.

She hated that she didn't know that. And that she hadn't asked. And that she had pictures on her phone of Gray in his hockey gear before _Tante_ Kyouka and Aria, before when she thought addiction happened to other people, and she hated that she was looking at them.

She stopped on one of him in his defense gear, a hockey stick in his hand and skates on his feet. He was sweaty and smiled for the camera and afterwards, he told her that she needed to stop taking so many pictures of him.

She wished she hadn't listened. She wished a lot of things, a lot of the time. Namely, that she hadn't walked away from him so many times.

Before she knew it, she had her text messages pulled up and had written one to him saying simply, _I'm in room twelve of the Black Glove_.

Then she messaged Jellal and told him she could meet at ten.

She dropped her phone on her bed then and paced. Her legs felt like rubber. She stopped and thought she'd try to eat something instead. Her stomach was knots but she choked down a few roasted potatoes.

Her phone buzzed. Juvia's blood pressure spiked. She checked and it was Jellal confirming. She looked at Gray's texts. There was a read receipt but no answer. She dropped the phone back to the bed and put on the TV. There was a nature documentary on. She left the channel where it was because the narrator's voice was soothing her frazzled nerves.

The documentary ended and a new one began. She'd have to go to bed soon if she wanted to get up and get out of there early.

She was drinking her second glass of water when her door was tapped on lightly. Juvia set her glass down on the table and stood stiltedly. Her legs barely wanted to move; they felt like rusted bits of metal carrying her across the room to the door.

She peeked through the peephole and saw a tall man she didn't recognize. His suit jacket bulged with a gun and there was a tattoo of a gloved hand on his neck, marking him as one of _Tante_ Asita's men. Juvia still got her fork off her plate just in case she needed a weapon.

She cracked open the door and the smell of drugs burned her nose; it hadn't been that way when she arrived but she supposed that it had been early for the Glove's usual clientele. "Yes?"

"Any trouble and I'll kick you both out," the man said briskly.

Juvia didn't understand at first but then Gray stepped out from behind him and handed him a couple bills. "Thanks, Blue."

Her legs were weak all over again. She dropped her fork. Gray hardly spared her a look as he stepped in and closed the door. He locked it, too, and the sound of it engaging made her jump. "What are you doing here? Did _Tante_ Eileen kick you out?"

Juvia got her throat to work. "No. Somnium's closed and my _Tante_ paid for this safe house for me."

"In case of Kyouka?"

Juvia shrugged. "In case of anything."

Gray crossed the room and pulled over the drapes and flicked off the TV. The silence was so complete that she could hear him breathing. It was an agitated sound. "You shouldn't have visitors, then, and _Tante_ Asita's guards shouldn't be letting me pay them off to get in here."

"You had to…?"

"Her guests aren't allowed to just go wherever they want."

She immediately felt stupid and raw enough to cry. "I didn't think…"

He softened almost imperceptibly. "It's done now. No sense getting upset over it."

She was anyway, each nerve frayed bare. Her eyes welled up and, though she blinked, tears tumbled over. Gray watched her cry and shiver for three whole breaths. "Jesus, Juvia."

"I'm sorry."

"Are you high?"

"I don't think so."

" _Were_ you?"

She didn't like to lie to him. "Yes."

His eyes closed and his shoulders dropped.

Juvia felt like she needed to explain herself. "He thinks its awkward being with an escort and I thought having cocaine would be better than fentanyl." Too late, she realized that it didn't matter _what_ she was high on.

" _Who_ thinks its awkward?"

" _Tante_ Eileen's given me one of her important clients," Juvia admitted. "He likes it when I speak to him in his mother tongue but I don't think he's had many escorts before."

When Gray got quiet, he was as difficult to read as Acnologia. Eventually, he said, "It doesn't matter what it is he gives you, it's all garbage."

"I know." Logically, of course, she knew. Try telling that to the hollow hole in her chest, though, whenever she saw it. Gray dropped onto the bed and pushed his hands through his hair; that's what he did when he was frustrated. Juvia sat down beside him. "It's just this one time."

"It's always just _this one time_ , but there's always a time after that."

"This time I mean it," she said. " _Tante_ Erza said—"

Gray gave her a warning look and Juvia's words fizzled. Her silence seemed to make him angrier, though, and she didn't understand _why._ She watched his face move through several expressions. Exasperation. Annoyance. Concern, when he looked her over. He touched her throat. It didn't really hurt but he laid his hand on the same spot Acnologia had and she knew that there was at least some kind of mark left behind. He took his hand away. "Did you tell your _Tante?_ "

"No."

"You should."

"He released me."

Gray looked at her wrist, remembering a different bruise on a different night that he himself had left. She changed the subject before they could revisit that day. It was a bad time for both of them. "Thank you for believing me. About Kyouka."

"That's why I came," he said.

She didn't believe that was the _only_ reason; or at least, she didn't want to. She let him have it, though; he was more comfortable when things operated in a spectrum he could quantify as professional. "Have you heard anything?"

"I think the investigation's going nowhere. Dreyar and Fernandez were pulled from the case and we don't have a body to exhume to see either way. There's no one to cohobate your story; no one's talking. Right now it's looking just like you made it up."

"Why would I make this up?"

"You've done it before to get my attention."

Once. She stole his car and hid it across town because he stopped responding to her texts. She hadn't been in her right mind then, in day three of a seven-day binge. "This is _different._ It's really happening. She's out there. She's—"

"Shh." This time, Gray laid his hand over her mouth to keep her silent and it was then she realized that she was picking agitatedly at her arms. Her skin was red and raw. She made her fingers still and breathed in his scent. He'd used Irish Spring soap to wash his hands recently and it clung to his skin.

Gray took his hand away. "I believe that you've received a note, and it could very well be Kyouka sending it, but we need more proof."

"I destroyed the note, I don't _have_ any more proof."

"There will be, though," he said confidently. "The next time she contacts you, keep the note and let me see. We can check it for prints and compare the handwriting to the notes Kyouka made when she was preparing Somnium's books."

"Oh." It seemed so simple when he said it.

"Okay?"

"Yes."

All of the tension went out of Gray's shoulders. He let out a breath and fell back on the bed with his fingers locked behind his head. Juvia waited for two beats of her heart then curled up and laid down beside him. He didn't stop staring at the ceiling, though he did put his arm around her shoulders and pull her in closer. She listened to his heartbeat and his shirt pull taut with each breath he took. She almost had everything she ever needed right here, but…

"Where is Aria?"

"Ultear's watching her," Gray said.

"Did you tell her where you were going?"

He shook his head. "I was already out."

Juvia realized what he meant about clients wandering when he came through the door. Not only was he already out of his house, he was already at the Black Glove. "The blonde again?" Should she feel better that it wasn't Ultear? Her head was a mess.

Gray didn't help her with things, he never graced her with a response. That was just as well. She put her head on his bicep and Gray turned into her so he could push his fingers through her hair. The tips were rough from his workouts. She used to like to watch him climb the rope in the gym. He still did it, apparently.

"I miss this."

His thumb stopped on her temple and his fingers curled around the back of her neck. She watched his throat bob around some emotion. She waited for him to say, _me, too_ , or to add something—anything at all. He slid his hand down to her waist and left it there; all of his breath came out and his chest stayed decompressed for longer than Juvia thought was likely comfortable.

He still hadn't said anything. She tipped her head back to look at him. Gray pulled her in close enough she couldn't see much but the slope of his neck and his dark hair poking out at odd ends, his shoulder and the wall behind his head.

It was the most comfortable she'd been in weeks. Months, maybe even. She relaxed and watched the drapes ruffle over the heat register for some time. The smell of roasting heroin came to her nose through the heating vent. She wanted to ask Gray how he came to places like this, being who he was, and ignored what was going on right in front of his nose but his muscles were loose and his breaths were even. He was asleep.

Eventually, the cocaine let her go and her eyes got heavy. She half-woke when Gray got up and left and only because she felt his lips brush against hers.

* * *

Pounding on the door released Juvia from dream. She looked at the bedside clock. It was eight thirty. She'd slept in.

Someone had swaddled her in blankets. She untangled herself and got to her feet. She felt muzzy and strange and her mouth was dry. The person on the other side of the door had no respect for that. It sounded like they were beating it with a battering ram.

Her first instinct was to tear open the door but after her encounter with Acnologia and Kyouka's letter, she took more caution, retrieving the fork she'd dropped and then looking through the peephole. _Tante_ Asita's guard stood on the other side of the door, looking mean and exasperated. He took something off his belt. A key card. The door swung open. Juvia had to scamper back to avoid being hit.

"Sorry," Juvia rushed to say. "I was sleeping."

He was as stoic as an oak. "And now you're leaving. Time's up."

"I'll be right out."

He wasn't budging from the doorway, determined to watch her get her things. Juvia set the fork down on the nightstand and got her coat and her boots. Bluenote escorted her down the stairs and out of the building. _Tante_ Asita was no longer at the front desk. She'd retired for the day, then.

Cold air swept past Juvia and pulled her hair away from her face. It was snowing again, huge flakes spiraling down from the sky. Cars cut through it and turned it into slush. Some of the salty brine splashed her boots. Juvia walked closer to the storefronts to avoid it as she hurried to the address she'd given Acnologia, slipping past Graffiti Alley, barely stopping to glance at the spread of colourful paint slapped on the sides of brick buildings, past restaurants and pubs and dance studios, art galleries and art hotels, until she got to the only bordello that called this side of town home. Its new sign was already up on its historic frontage, glittering red and black in the early morning light.

A red Camaro almost ran her over when she crossed the road. She yelled at the driver, then recognized Natsu in the front seat. She pressed her lips together as he slowed and wondered if he was going to get out and abuse her ears with some nasty words. He stopped fettering the breaks enough to slide through a red light and round the corner. He was gone, in a rush to get somewhere fast.

_Like you should be._

Juvia jogged across the road and helped herself through the door. _Tante_ Erza didn't like it when she was late. She was the same as her mother in that regard.


	18. Chapter 18

**_ XVIII: Jellal _ **

Sleep was a commodity hindered by caffeine pills and coffee. Catching a solid eight hours was near unheard of, and oversleeping for ten? That was reserved for handover days, days when he didn't have to go into the office and think clearly. Or they were for days Erza was involved.

Today happened to be of both varieties and Jellal took his time getting up. He showered, drank two coffees, tried his hand at making bacon and eggs. The toast burned; he slathered it in butter to smooth out the flavour. _Tante_ Alba had taught him that trick.

He dressed down and walked Beau around two, doing a huge loop of the city, using it as a means to go to places he wouldn't normally. It was a good opportunity to scope out the Stacks. People were less suspicious of dog-walking pedestrians in his experience, they weren't typically cops.

The tangle of streets was quiet but that would change once the sun set. Nighttime was made for losing inhibition.

Huntsman leered at him at the corner of Warden. He took it and walked all the way to the dead end and let Beau off her leash. She ran through tall grass, sniffing everything there was to sniff until Jellal felt that they couldn't linger anymore and whistled her back to his side. She sat primly for her leash and walked at his hip.

Jellal catalogued the houses, the street's escape route, any hazards. That dead end was a blessing, really. There was only one way for anyone to escape unless they were hiking it on foot. The river limited their ability to get very far, though.

He went left on Warden and his route took him through a part of town he visited on the daily back when he was small. An old church came out of the late winter skyline and he felt like he'd been kicked in the guts.

The Prayer was the staple of this side of town for many, many years. _Tante_ Alba's death had seen the building closed and he hadn't had the heart to come this way since, but now he picked out all of the ways it was different. Winter had gripped its gardens and a new sign graced its frontage, red and black, that read _Purgatory._ A place caught somewhere between heaven and hell, made for sinners.

There was a sign on the front door that read _Grand Opening Tonight!_ and a sign below that that read _Closed_. Despite that, a shiny black Mercedes was parked out front. Curious, Jellal altered his course to take him by the front of the building. Each window was tinted black and prevented him from looking inside. He tried the back where the delivery door was located and tried to peek in there. He saw nothing but boxes of alcohol and decorating supplies.

He could linger no longer without rousing suspicion and moved on.

By the time he got back into his apartment, it was six. He had enough time to relax for a bit, eat dinner, and then get ready to meet Juvia. There were three calls on his phone from Laxus. As he was clearing them, Laxus called again. Jellal answered as to not arouse suspicion. "What's up?"

"Where were you?"

"Walking Beau." The dog's head came up off the floor when she heard the W word. Jellal shook his head at her and she groaned.

"You left your phone behind?"

"Clears my head," Jellal said. "What's up?"

"I was thinking about going to _Be Frank's_. You in?"

"I've been promising Wendy I'd help her study for her Law exam," Jellal pulled from the air. She'd mentioned _something_ about that recently, hadn't she? "Next time."

"Is it exam time already?"

"Guess so."

"Well, come out after. She's not going to stay up all night."

"I'm bagged," Jellal said. "It's been a long week."

Laxus sighed. "Alright. Suit yourself."

Jellal hung up. His apartment was silent except for Beau's gently whistling breath. Her head rested on her paws and her eyes were on him. Judgingly, if he knew anything about his dog. "I did promise her I'd help her study, and I didn't tell Laxus _when_." Therefore, it wasn't _really_ a lie.

Beau rolled over onto her back when he walked by and Jellal stooped to give penance for his almost-lie. Her belly was still pink like when she was a puppy.

When she let him, Jellal went to his closet and dug out the shoebox he kept all of his _Important Things_ in. His passport, _Tante_ Alba's favourite head wrap (he used to sit on the floor with his knees to his chest and watch her tuck all of her crimpy hair up beneath it with skilled fingers), his diploma, a newspaper article from the night Erza shot her husband, and one from the day Superintendent Tores was killed in his hospital bed. Beneath all that was his backup gun and bullets that rolled from one end of the box to the other and _tinged_ together in the way only brass could.

Jellal loaded the clip and cocked it. The gun was heavy in his hand, as it should be, it gave pulling the trigger a gravity that plastic and composite weapons lacked. He thumbed the safety and stuffed it into the black leather shoulder holster he donned over his long-sleeved T-shirt. His forest green duffle coat went over everything. He left it open and pulled on a pair of Redwings.

Beau said goodbye to him at the door. Jellal took the stairs down, wanting to _move_ to expel some of his nervous energy. Going against the grain wasn't something he often entertained, _Tante_ Alba had told him he'd catch the Cardinal as a police officer, not as a rogue, and that seemed important at the time, but months had made her words dull and his convictions thin. He had no faith in Major Crimes, and no one at Somnium was going to be forthcoming with them.

The lobby smelled like old lady perfume again. Jellal pushed out into the parking lot, looking for relief. The smell of smoke assaulted his nose, a huge gust of it that made him cough. He found the source; his stomach flopped.

Laxus leaned against the building and blew out a white cloud. "Is Wendy's car on the fritz or can she study now when Porlyusica's watching _As the World Turns?_ "

"Wendy cancelled, I'm going to see Erza," Jellal recovered.

Laxus screwed up his face as much as his bandaged and blue nose would allow and his scar crinkled. "Neither of those things are true. See, Wendy's Law exam was last week, and _I_ helped her study because you ditched."

Jellal winced. He'd been busy. And a shitty friend. Or uncle. Or whatever he was to Wendy.

"And if you were going to see Erza, you would have shaved," Laxus finished.

"Alright, Detective," Jellal muttered.

"I get by. Where're you off to?"

" _Be Frank's._ "

"The truth and I'll give you the results from the sketch artist."

"I hate you."

"You, too, pal. Come on."

A bitter wind rushed by. Jellal stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Juvia contacted me. I'm meeting her in the Stacks, okay?"

"Captain said to drop it."

"And the Captain's wrong."

"Don't tell her that," Laxus muttered. Louder, he said, "You're going to catch a load of shit for this."

"I'm working the Strauss case," Jellal said flippantly.

"Captain said you could work that if Major Crimes decided that it wasn't relevant."

"And while they're sitting on their ass playing with their dicks, Lisanna and Kagura are where? Most cases, if they're going to be closed, are closed in the first forty-eight hours. We need to _move_ on this. I can't wait for Ultear to give me fucking permission." Jellal clicked his key fob and his car started up. He had to brush the snow off of it, taking away from his impassioned speech.

"You've been stupider than usual." Laxus used the sleeve of his coat to clean off the passenger's side.

"No one fucking asked."

"I'm just saying." Laxus' grandfather's Jeep was parked in Jellal's neighbour's spot. He opened it up and pulled tactical equipment from the back.

"Where the fuck did that come from?"

"The precinct," he said and threw a vest Jellal's way. It was his own, marked with a J. Fernandez and MPD over the breast. "I thought you'd try to do something stupid and didn't want to get shot again."

"Thanks." Jellal opened the driver's door and dropped his coat in the seat. He dressed quickly, stripping off his holster, pulling on his vest over his T-shirt, and finding a new place for his gun. The front door of his apartment opened and he drew the attention of the perfume lady. She saw the vests and the guns and started to waddle over. It was slow going.

Jellal threw the snowbrush into the backseat and got in. Laxus was already settled, doing up his seatbelt and fucking with the radio. He landed on _I Fought the Law_ by Bobby Fuller Four. It felt contradictory to Jellal but Laxus was drumming along with the cymbals so Jellal left it. His neighbour was too close and he needed to get out of there; it was getting late.

Once they were on the road, he said, "So? The sketch artist?"

"Turned up nothing," Laxus said gaily.

"What?"

He shrugged. "I didn't recognize her face."

"You said—"

"And I told you."

He felt played. "You're an asshole."

"Yep. I have some information on the fingerprints found on the gun, though."

Jellal took his eyes from the road. "Real information?"

"Unless Levy's taken up lying, then yeah. They belong to an ex-employee of Somnium."

Jellal's knotted stomach cinched tighter. "Who?"

"Chick by the name of Seilah. She—"

"Was Kyouka's right-hand," Jellal filled in. "The one that dropped Mira off at Kardia the night Elfman was killed."

"The same," Laxus confirmed. "She fell off the face of the earth after that night."

Jellal's brain ticked through. "She's Kyouka's contact."

"Maybe."

"She was _there,_ at Somnium. _She's_ probably the poisoner."

"How did she get into a place where she used to work undetected, though?" Laxus pondered.

That was a good question. Wouldn't Erza have recognized her? Or Mira? She was Mira's first customer of the night, after all. He didn't like where his thoughts were taking him. Chances were, Major Crimes was thinking the same thing, too.

Laxus put words to Jellal's worries. "What if they did recognize her and did nothing about it?"

"Why, though?"

"Dunno. But if it's true, there's probably a good reason."

Sure there was, that didn't mean that it was a _right_ reason, though. He tried to think about it rationally. Mira should _hate_ Seilah. Seilah _left_ her in a parking lot for the Cardinal. There was no way they were working together.

Jellal turned a corner. "Major Crimes knows about the prints?"

"They will soon. Levy still thought the case was ours."

"How?"

Laxus grinned. "Her email password is Lily. Someone _might_ have gone on her computer and deleted the email that circulated."

He didn't know how his partner knew that and he didn't much care, either. He did feel obligated to say, "You could get into big shit if Captain finds out."

"She will," Laxus said. "Ultear has a way of knowing everything."

True. "Thanks."

Laxus grunted. "Mira texted me an address. I guess she wants to meet up. I told her I was caught up in something tonight but I'd get by as soon as I could. When I do, I'll ask her about Seilah."

"In a way that won't tip her off?" Jellal suggested.

"I got it."

Subtle wasn't Laxus' forte in Jellal's experience. He thought if Mira was going to open up to anyone, it'd be him, though.

Jellal made a right on Warden and his headlights illuminated a girl on the corner of the street. There was a man in her personal space; she was a pillar, withstanding his obvious advances and ignoring the money he shoved in her face. Her eyes met Jellal's through the windshield and she stepped out almost into the path of the car to get away from her heckler. His voice followed her into the backseat. She remained silent and stoic as she closed the door.

"We could have met at a coffee shop or something," Jellal said.

"People watch girls more at coffee shops." Juvia's breath smelled like the mint gum she chewed and her hair smelled like vanilla. She looked alert, though twitchy, like drug users usually were when they went too long without a fix.

"Your _Tante_?"

"She's too busy to keep tabs on me."

They travelled beneath a streetlamp and Jellal caught sight of her in the rear view. Her hand was on her throat and there was a thoughtful look on her face. "Because of Somnium?"

"I'll tell you the same thing I told Acnologia. _Tante_ Eileen doesn't include me in her personal business. I don't know why everyone seems to think otherwise."

"Sure," Jellal said. It was more important to have Juvia cooperative than to get _Tante_ Eileen's secrets from her. "Have you had any more communication from this person?"

"No."

"And you haven't noticed anything strange lately?"

"My whole life has been strange lately," Juvia said.

"But anything out of the—"

"Ordinary strange? No." She fiddled with a ring on her hand, twisting it back and forth. "Left here." Juvia pointed down Huntsman where the houses got more like shacks, many slanted with either board over their windows or garbage bags taped in place to keep moisture out. Husks of cars rotted in driveways and the road were cracked, pulverized concrete littering the snowy and ill-maintained road. It was all familiar; Jellal was glad he went for the walk earlier.

"Slow down," Juvia said.

Jellal complied.

"It was a grey house. Or maybe it was white." She squinted through a set of blinding lights as they got passed by a car travelling the opposite direction. "I only saw it for a minute, and then Gray showed up."

Jellal wondered how he had the time. Narcotics always seemed to be busy, trying to tie small-time drug pushers back to their big-time dealers. It was a problem that got more out of control with every beat of growing Magnolia's heart.

The street ended at the _No Exit_ sign. "Can you turn around?" Juvia asked. Laxus sighed agitatedly and massaged around his broken nose gently.

"There's aspirin in the glovebox," Jellal offered and Laxus went rooting for it in amongst bills and receipts.

"How long has this been here?" He pointed to the coffee Jellal had bought that morning and left mostly untouched in his cup holder. Jellal opened his mouth. Laxus grabbed it and said, "You know what? Unless it's more than two days old and will kill me, don't tell me, I don't want to know." He swigged it all back and made a face. "Fuck."

"You hate cold coffee."

"I thought my face hurt more. I was wrong."

Jellal shook his head.

"Here, I think," Juvia interrupted. She pointed to a small white stucco house wedged between a brick bungalow and a blue two-storey. There was a red Camaro looking out of place in its driveway. Jellal pulled up two houses in front of it so they wouldn't attract too much attention and let the wheels bump the curb. He shut off the engine and the lights.

"Now what?" Juvia asked.

"Now we wait and see if we can identify anyone coming in or out," Laxus said tersely before Jellal could burst in with any adventurous plans. "If we see something suspicious, we'll call for backup and get you somewhere safe."

Jellal looked down at his bulletproof vest. His partner had played him like a fiddle, getting him suited up and coming out here just so he could keep control of the situation. He never knew Laxus to be very good at manipulation and was grudgingly impressed.

Juvia slumped in her seat and pulled out her phone. She tapped on the screen.

"What are you doing?"

" _Tante_ Erza was messaging me," Juvia said. "She wants to know where I am."

Laxus reached into the backseat and plucked her phone from her hand.

"Hey!" Juvia scrabbled for it. Laxus dropped it in the glovebox and closed it.

"You'll get it back in a bit. We can't draw attention to ourselves."

"She'll get worried."

Jellal pulled out his own phone and typed a quick, _Juvia's with me. We're okay,_ then turned it on _do not disturb_. "There. She knows you're safe."

Juvia huffed and leaned back in her seat dejectedly. Jellal sympathized; this night wasn't going exactly how he expected it would, either, the house was dark and the chances of going over there and snooping around were slim, what with his partner exercising his best buzzkill abilities. He tried to dangle bait in front of his nose.

"That looks like Dragneel's Camaro."

"Could be."

"We should go check."

"If we wait for him to come out, we'll know, too, and we won't blow our cover."

"You picked a shitty time to start following the rules," Jellal muttered.

"I've always followed the rules, you're the delinquent."

That didn't deserve a response. Jellal spent the next twenty minutes monitoring the street. Two teenage boys snuck out of a house and got into a junker parked on the road. They were smoking something and then they were touching each other. He observed the other side of the street to give them some privacy. An older lady staggered into her home, though it was a little early to be falling-down drunk. A cat leapt up on the hood of a car and left behind small, perfect footprints.

Laxus' voice punctuated the silence. "A car's coming."

Jellal watched it turn down the street and then tuck into one of the first house's driveways. A man got out and went inside. "Nope."

Another five minutes slipped by. Two cars pulled down to the end of the street. One guy got out and went to the driver's side. Jellal watched an exchange of money and drugs. Juvia rubbed her hands over her thighs.

"Can I have my phone?"

"Nope," Jellal said again.

"Well, can I leave, then? I don't need to be here."

"It's not safe."

She smacked her gum more violently and twisted her hands together. "What if I call someone to pick me up? _Tante_ Erza said I could get Angel or Gildarts or something whenever I want."

"Why are you so hot to get out of here?" Laxus asked. "Know something we don't, Juvia?"

"No." Her eyes followed the cars as they drove back out the way they'd come.

"Then why so nervous?"

"She wants a hit, she's not nervous," Jellal said, less tactful than he'd be normally. He went through his glovebox again and came out with Percocet. He handed one large white pill to her. "It'll help."

Juvia sucked in a deep breath. "I'm okay."

"You have Percocet and you give me aspirin?" Laxus asked incredulously.

"Remember the last time you were on Percocet?" Jellal put the pills back away.

"Nope."

"Exactly." Though it might have made him a little more cooperative and willing to bend the rules. Jellal shook his head. Knowing his luck, Laxus would get shot because he'd be telling him how great of a partner he was.

Another car pulled down the street. It passed below a streetlamp and its white paint glowed. Jellal sunk low in his seat and watched in the mirror as the car pulled into the driveway of the stucco house. It was a white Impala. "That's them."

The driver's side door opened and a tall man exited. Their brunette undid the window and called something to him. He said something back and went inside.

"We should call for backup," Laxus said.

"He left her in the car. They're going out again," Jellal said. "We should act while we can, otherwise they might not come back."

"Then we'll follow them to their next location and keep eyes on them," Laxus rebuked.

"You didn't fucking bring me tactical gear so we could keep surveillance," Jellal hissed.

"No, I brought you that so you wouldn't ditch me."

Jellal was angry with him all over again. There wasn't much time for that, though. The front door was opened once more and two girls came through, a brunette Jellal knew to be Kagura Mikizuchi and Kyouka, he'd recognize her sharp and angular face anywhere. Behind her was Bickslow and in his arms was a limp Lisanna Strauss.

"Fuck," Laxus said. Jellal expected him to get on his phone. It seemed platinum had the ability to make his partner stupid, though. He opened the door and got out with his gun drawn.

"Stay here and call the police." Jellal tossed Juvia his phone and followed Laxus, who was already yelling loudly, telling everyone to get on the ground. No one was listening. Kagura hopped into the driver's seat, Kyouka yanked open the back door, Bickslow threw Lisanna at her and then pulled out a gun. He didn't seem to be very experienced and didn't use the car for cover like he should have.

As soon as the weapon came out, Laxus threw warnings to the wind and opened fire. Bullets came back at them. Jellal used a sagging shed on the neighbour's front lawn as cover. Bits of wood burst overhead and reined down on the snowy ground and Jellal's lap. He didn't have eyes on Laxus and bullets were still flying. He counted to three and peeked out around the structure. Laxus was ten meters away, hunkered down behind a compost bin he really was too large to fit behind, his shoulders stuck out on either side.

The firing stopped for a second. Jellal put himself out there more completely so he could get a clear shot and spotted Bickslow in the same spot by the rear passenger's door. He wasn't reloading, he was retrieving a new gun from Kyouka. Bickslow re-aimed at Laxus, who he decided was the easier target, closer and less covered.

Jellal fired. The first bullet hit the roof of the car, the next caught Bickslow somewhere in the chest, Jellal couldn't tell exactly where, though, all he knew was that the force of the shot pushed him back. One of the girls yelled, "Get in!"

Bickslow was still able to obey the command, either he was in shock or he wasn't that badly injured. The Impala roared to life. Jellal hunkered low and shot at the tires. One went flat. He was aiming again but noticed that the boys that had snuck into their car were now standing on the road watching the altercation and were in the firing range. He pointed his gun at the sky. The Impala rolled around the corner of Huntsman and disappeared.

Laxus popped out from behind his cover, out of breath and mad. "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. _Fuck_."

Jellal was buzzing but he made sure to check off all the boxes first. "Are you good?"

"Yeah. You?"

"Good." The back door of the Charger opened and Juvia got out on quaking legs. Jellal asked, "Are you okay?"

"I called the police like you said," she said in that distant and airy way she had.

"Good. Get back into the car, Juvia, and lock the doors." They weren't done yet. "Now," he barked because she hesitated. She jumped like she'd been pinched and slid back into the backseat. He heard the locks engage and reloaded his pistol.

Laxus was waiting for him by the Camaro. "We should wait for backup."

"That's Natsu's car and he didn't come out with them," Jellal reasoned. "Something's not right." And they had an obligation.

Laxus' shoulders set and he nodded. "I'll lead."

Jellal didn't care either way and fell into a fast-paced jog behind his partner. The snow on the driveway was thick and tracked by two sets of tires. The porch drooped and was marked by footprints that had dragged snow into the house's foyer. A lamp was on way in the back where the kitchen was, and low music played, some local rock station. Everything smelled like burned food and takeout and blood.

Laxus' steps were surprisingly light. Jellal mimicked him and listened closely for any stragglers. Laxus cleared the living room to the left and waved him in deeper, toward the kitchen. A pool of red looked startlingly bright in the otherwise drab house. Laying in its center was white-faced Natsu.

Laxus bent and checked his pulse; Jellal kept his eye on the house. Nothing moved.

Laxus stood and nodded once. Natsu was alive. He'd have to wait, though. They cleared the rest of the house, finding a bedroom piled high with stolen goods, clothes, mostly, wigs, makeup. Cigarettes were stubbed out in pizza boxes, empty forties of vodka lay on their sides, a dusty dresser littered with pills and a wall alight with red and green crayon drawings that got fainter and fainter as the crayon must have gotten smaller and smaller. Where they faded out completely, maroon took their place.

Laxus forgot about his secrecy. "Is that blood?"

"Yeah."

He shook his head and kept going, into a room that was at one point a laundry room but now looked like a lab of sorts, full of pill crushers, weigh scales, solutions.

"What. The. Fuck." Laxus bent double to look at a bottle of discarded pills. "Methadyl."

"Fuck you, Major Crimes," Jellal said.

"Or not. The only thing we did was help their investigation," Laxus griped and cleared the last bedroom. There was no one, as Jellal suspected. He returned to the kitchen where Natsu still lay in a pool of his own blood. He took off his jacket and used it to staunch the flow as best he could. The ambulance was close; he could hear the sirens shrieking in the distance.

* * *

You weren't supposed to use phones in a hospital. The closest he came to following that rule was to step away from the door where Natsu's nurse was finishing sewing his head together to make his call. Laxus picked up on the first ring.

"Are they done in there yet?"

"She's finishing up now."

"Good. Levy just texted me. They finished collecting evidence, Cheney and Eucliffe left the scene a minute ago. I figure we have about ten minutes before they get here."

"Quit smoking and get your ass up here, then," Jellal ordered. Laxus hung up in his ear.

The nurse came back out and hurried down the hallway for something. Jellal counted to ten before Laxus made it up the stairs and into the room. He was breathing heavy and there was snow in his hair. Jellal gave him a dirty look that he ignored until he saw Jellal pick up a visitor's chair and jam it beneath the door handle.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

"Yeah, what the fuck _are_ you doing?" slurred another voice.

Jellal didn't realize that Natsu was awake. He felt shame try to tint his cheeks. He quashed the feeling. "We need to ask you some questions, Natsu."

"With the door locked?"

"It's complicated."

"Oh, well, in that case, go ahead, jam that chair under the door," Natsu said sarcastically.

"It's excessive, I just don't want to be interrupted. What were you doing at that residence on Huntsman?" Jellal said quickly.

Natsu said, "If you want to ask those kinds of questions, come back when my head's not splitting."

"We can't."

Natsu glared at him with one eye.

"We'll be fast. You were there for Lisanna, weren't you? Meaning you've been in communication with her."

Natsu's default setting was pain in the dick. Jellal _watched_ the struggle flit over his face. He didn't want to help the cops; it was all but hardwired into his bones.

"We watched them take Lisanna. Anything you tell us now will help us catch up to them."

Natsu sat up a little straighter. "Was she alive?"

"I think so," Jellal said. "What happened?"

Natsu broke like a dam under too much pressure. "She texted me a couple days ago after she split from the factory. Said she was safe but wouldn't tell me where she was. I had a friend of mine track her cell phone and followed it to Huntsman. She was going to come with me. Kagura didn't want her to. They got into a fight, I stepped in, and someone came out of nowhere and whacked me in the back of the head."

"Kyouka," Jellal said. "She was there. She's been staying with them. Lisanna didn't mention anything about her?"

Natsu started to shake his head and settled for, "No."

"Do you remember anything else?"

"There was a lot of yelling?" Natsu said. "Something about their safe house not being safe anymore."

"Because you found it?"

"Maybe?" he said. "They said they had to go."

" _Where_?"

He lifted his shoulders. "I don't know."

"This isn't the time to fucking play games," Laxus impressed. "If you know and you're withholding information, I will personally wring it from you."

Natsu stared him down. "I told you what I know."

The door handle jiggled, then it was banged against. "Natsu?"

Natsu gingerly leaned his head back against his pillow. "Probably just don't answer that."

"It's your brother," Jellal said.

"I know."

Zeref's voice came through the door again. "Natsu? What's going on?"

"I don't care what you want, _I_ want to make it home tonight," Laxus pointed out and kicked the chair away from the door handle.

Zeref pushed open the door. Worse than him being spitting mad, he was cool and collected taking in the flipped chair and his brother's split head. "Did they lay hands on you?"

"We're not going to bust him up for information," Friday Laxus contradicted Wednesday Laxus.

Zeref didn't want Laxus' recount. "Natsu?"

"It's fine," Natsu said.

"I didn't ask if it was fine. I asked if they laid hands on you."

"They were just asking questions."

There was a lot of tension between them that Jellal took note of. Zeref _did_ seem calm and collected, but beneath that was pure agitation. He was looking for someone to take his anger out on. "You have no business asking him anything. I was told this was no longer your case."

"It's not," Laxus said. "We were just trying to be thorough."

"Or harass my brother?"

"That's not what happened."

"Really? Because it seems like every time I turn around, you're _there_ , Detective Dreyar, and you're looking for ways to make us look bad. Did you _follow_ him tonight?"

"Mister Dragneel, I assure you, that's not what was happening," Jellal said. "We were following up on another lead and just happened to come across your brother."

"If I asked your superior what you were doing out there, what would she tell me?"

"Shut up, Zeref," Natsu said, and earned a scathing look that he didn't buckle under. "Fuck. Just let them get out of here. My head is killing me."

The hallway door opened for Eucliffe's blonde head of hair. He hesitated, though, and didn't come through into the hallway just yet. "We were done anyway," Laxus said and stepped out. Jellal was on his heels as he walked past the stairwell and through the hospital to the other side of the nurse's station where another pair of elevators waited.

"Those will take us out to the east parking lot," Jellal pointed out. "Way out of our way."

"I'd rather a five-minute walk than explain to Major Dicks why we were stepping in on their case," Laxus told him and jammed the button.

"You know Zeref's going to say something to Ultear and they're going to find out anyway, right?"

"Oh, well. I'm changing my phone number and leaving the country," Laxus said. "You can come if you want."

The elevator closed around them. "You're dramatic."

"Smart," Laxus said. "Not dramatic."

Jellal's phone buzzed in his pocket. He took it out with resignation, knowing already that it was Ultear. She said simply, _'You better be heading to the precinct.'_

_'Philippines, apparently,' he_ typed back.

She didn't respond. He had to assume his joke was not well-received. Laxus' phone went off a second later. He sighed and pulled it out.

"What'd she say?"

"To hurry up."

Laxus smoked on the walk to the car. "What are we going to tell her?"

"The truth, I guess," Jellal said. "We had an idea that Lisanna might have been in there and were staking out the place."

"In our tactical gear?"

"Better safe than sorry."

"What about Juvia?"

Jellal's car came into view. "I don't think that's going to be a problem." The backseat was empty.


	19. Chapter 19

**_XIX: Laxus _ **

When Ultear got really mad, the skin around her cheeks and her throat got sun-burn red and her eyes got narrow and hard. She reminded Laxus of a wasp circling around, waiting for a good opportunity to sting. "What were you doing there?" Her voice, like her muscles, were as taut as piano wire.

"At the house or the hospital?" Laxus asked.

His question only seemed to make her angrier. "Start with the house."

There were rules about throwing your partner under the bus. Laxus had never seen a bus bigger or angrier than Ultear, though, and it was fucking tempting. He clipped his words. He didn't want to be _that_ guy. "We just planned on scouting out the area. We got an anonymous tip that Lisanna Strauss might be laying up there." Just like he and Jellal rehearsed. They were in enough trouble, weren't they?

Her neck got redder. There was something up with her blood pressure, maybe. Could be, that something was sitting across from her. "I told you not to pursue that until Major Crimes decided it was irrelevant."

"And I made a judgement call," Laxus said.

"Call it what it is, you disobeyed a direct order."

"Okay. I can see why you think that but it wasn't my intention."

Another shade of red. "Intention or not—"

Cutting her off was dangerous but he needed to, otherwise, it was going to be a nuclear zone in there. "I'm sorry but I needed to see if she was there. The more time that passes on this thing, the less likely it is that we'll get her."

"All of the things Lisanna Strauss thinks are important are right here in Magnolia, she's _not_ taking off."

"Sure. Yeah. Mira and Natsu. But all due respect, Captain, when I saw her, she was unconscious and being forcibly put into the backseat of a car. They could have been taking her _anywhere,_ and were likely leaving the city because their safe house was compromised."

"And that information came from…?"

"Natsu Dragneel." The trap was closed around him before Laxus realized it. His chest compressed and his shoulders sunk. "Well done."

"I knew you were interrogating him."

"Not interrogating," Laxus outright lied. "We checked in on him to make sure he was okay, it's the decent thing to do, and if he said some stuff, well, it's my duty to _listen_."

Ultear's jaw twitched. "You expect me to _believe_ that?"

He threw his hands into the air. "I'm honest."

"The door was _locked_ by a chair."

"I don't remember that."

She wasn't biting. "Which of you did it?"

"Really, Captain, I don't remember."

"Laxus."

"I don't," he said. "Adrenaline makes my memory fuzzy."

"This isn't a fucking joke. Zeref is _angry_ , _I_ am fucking _angry_."

"Major Crimes?"

She took her time getting the information out, perhaps weighing the pros and cons of telling him. Eventually, she said, "Zeref came directly to me."

"So they don't know."

"They will once I suspend you and file my reports."

"Suspension?"

"It's the only logical course of action. You disobeyed my orders and tampered with an investigation."

"I just told you why I acted. Was I supposed to just sit idly by while they took an unconscious girl?"

"What you should have done is hand over _all information_ like I _told_ you, and stepped back, _like I told you_. What you should have done is not _compromised_ Major Crimes' interrogation. This whole thing is a _mess_ because of your irresponsible actions. We may _never_ catch these people now."

It was hard to sink into your chair when you were six foot five and two-hundred and thirty pounds. With nowhere to go, he sat tall and took ownership of his actions. "Yes, Ma'am. Sorry."

"Complete the best report of your life then get downstairs and hand in your gun and your badge until further notice."

Laxus tried to think of a way to make her change her mind. He sat too long and she barked, "Go, now."

"Yes, Ma'am." Laxus' legs were stiff raising him. He moved and felt like a ghost. He was peeking in on someone else's life, some big fuckup that made mistakes like this, not him. A move like this was something his father would have done. Laxus wasn't careless like this, he was methodical and he _planned._ And he didn't go against the grain. At least, not very hard. That's how people fell off the waggon and got run over by its wheels.

_You're not your father_ , he told himself as he passed by a dejected looking Jellal on his way into Ultear's office. _You're not. And getting a suspension doesn't mean that you are, either._ The thought still haunted him all the way down the old, creaking stairs, through the busying precinct and down the hallway to the bullpen.

It filled his thoughts as he wrote out what was a questionably good report and handed it in, and chased him through the precinct to the place where an armed clerk was waiting for him with paperwork to fill out and sign.

He wrote down his badge number and his gun's registration and the date and signed his name, then he took off his badge and his gun and gave both of them over. The clerk turned from him and put them in a plastic cubby to be dealt with.

Laxus saw Jellal on his way through the precinct again. There was a stormy look on his face while he stalked with purpose to the clerk. Jellal's irritation flared Laxus' to the point where anxiety bit at Laxus' nerve endings. He'd never been suspended before. Well, that wasn't true. Once, he'd been suspended with pay after he'd shot a perp and the precinct needed to do an investigation. That was never a _punishment_ , though. It was for his own protection. This. This was something else entirely.

He walked quickly like he could distance himself from those thoughts.

The temperature had dipped to bitterly cold again. Laxus toughed out the biting wind and leaned against Jellal's Charger. It had been parked for only two hours and was covered in snow. He hated winter.

He smoked two cigarettes while waiting, one right after the other because to sit idle was to invite his mind to wander to weird, self-deprecating places he didn't typically trod. A couple of people came into work and nodded at him. One of those was Gray. He looked like he wanted to come over and say something but he refrained. Laxus was suspicious as to why. Was Ultear telling him what was going on? She wasn't allowed to, of course, but pillow talk bent the rules.

He didn't get a chance to chase him down and ask, the door opened and Jellal came out. He crossed the parking lot with huge, restless steps. "This is bullshit," he announced when he was just within hearing distance.

Laxus cringed at his volume. "It's only for a little while."

"Did she give you a timeline?" Jellal snapped.

"No, but we're suspended, not fired."

"Might as well have fucking fired us."

"I hope you didn't say that to her."

Jellal's look got dark and Laxus suddenly didn't _want_ to know what his usually methodical and calm partner had to say to Ultear. "Move."

"Hang on."

"We're not supposed to be anywhere near the precinct. Move."

"Come out for a beer," Laxus offered because he didn't like the look in his partner's eye.

"It's four in the morning."

"Well, come over for a beer then," Laxus whittled.

"Beau's at home and your grandfather is sleeping."

"That's not likely," Laxus muttered. Or if it was, Makarov had fallen asleep in the armchair in the living room waiting for him to come home. "Let's head over to your place, then."

Jellal's shoulders dropped when he sighed. "Just go home, Laxus, I'm pissed, I'm not crazy."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning, I'm going to go home and mind my own business and not think about how Major Crimes is going to fuck this case up or how we did."

It really was a fucking shitshow, wasn't it? Laxus jarred away from _those_ thoughts, too. It was a short trip from there to the place where he decided he was a shitty detective. "You're really heading home?"

"Yeah."

"For real? Because remember the last time you lied to me you said that we were going to do this thing where we were one of those disgusting bromance partners, like from Lethal Weapon and we'd tell each other everything—"

Jellal scrunched his eyes and shook his head. " _What_?"

"We talked about it."

"Whatever. I'm going home. If you need a ride, get in, otherwise, fuck off."

Laxus sighed through his nose and tipped his head back. Magnolia's city lights were refracted back on the cloudy sky, making everything look orange. Snowflakes fell like ash. "If you're not going to be an asshole, I'll walk," he decided.

Jellal shook his head in exasperation. "Then move, please."

Laxus stood and popped another cigarette into his mouth. His tongue felt charred and his fingers were numb but he liked the illusion of calmness smoking gave him. Hell, he liked _smoking_. He couldn't remember why he quit.

Jellal slammed his door and cranked on the car. His wipers knocked away the snow on the windshield; Laxus supposed he'd depend on wind to get the rest. He watched him pull out of the parking lot, trailing ghost clouds behind him.

Suddenly, he was alone and the silence felt cushioned by the centimeters of snow. He started walking in a direction he knew wasn't random, though he didn't think much on it as he took to Magnolia's streets and followed the chain of streetlamps that led to old town. He didn't ever spend _much_ time out this way, but Magnolia was his city and he could probably do the walk with his eyes closed.

Occasionally, a snowplough would rush by and spray the sidewalk with a wave of slushy mess. He kept under the awnings of storefronts, out of range, and pretended that his leather shoes, useless as they were for winter walking, weren't getting ruined. They were expensive and one day, he was going to be able to head back to work and he'd need to look nice again.

The address didn't mean much to Laxus until he rounded the corner and saw the ancient building looking like a sinful sentry. Its lettering out front had been changed, the cross removed and its stained glass windows altered to flat black things that reflected neon but the Prayer was the Prayer was the Prayer, even when it was called _Purgatory._

He studied the exterior before entry. There was music happening inside, loud and full of hard drums. That was as far as he knew. It was modern and he didn't recognize the singer asking,

_Would you kill, kill, kill for me?_  
I love you enough to ask you again  
Would you kill, kill, kill for me?

The door opened and a dishevelled woman tumbled out. There was a limousine waiting to take her away. She all but fell into the backseat, high or drunk or both. Laxus puffed out his cheeks and mounted the steps, preparing for what was happening inside.

The door was opened by a woman he didn't recognize, tall and fit and muscled. He had no doubt she'd do some damage if need be. He stepped into the new vestibule and she looked him over head to toe, landing on the scar over his eye. "Arms up."

Laxus obeyed and was patted down briskly. It was uncomfortable. She even grabbed and lifted his junk. Purgatory was taking no chances.

She waved him on. "Go ahead, Mister Dreyar."

"Thanks." Laxus fixed his askew coat and stepped into Magnolia's newest bordello.

The music was even louder here.

_Your hotel-heart won't be so vacant_  
And I can tell that you ain't faking  
Because I take death threats _  
_ _Like the best of them_

Red lights shone down on what was once the Prayer. A lot of redecorating had happened since _Tante_ Alba had owned it. The pews and the dais were gone, the crosses and the basin for holy water. The floors were still wooden, the stage, too, where a girl spun with her male counterpart and they undressed each other for hollering customers who pushed up against the edge of the stage and flung money around like it grew on trees.

Along the walls were bench seats where men and women alike curled into their partners and whispered into their ears. The walls over their heads were patterned with three-dimensional vines, the thorns laid flat so one couldn't skewer themselves. Laxus touched one. It was made of metal.

"I wouldn't press too hard on that," said a familiar voice. Laxus found Erza leaning against a U shaped bar in a forget-me-not-blue power suit, black heels on her feet. She had a drink in her hand and offered it to him. "Welcome to Purgatory."

"I didn't know _Tante_ Eileen was expanding."

"Purgatory is the contingency plan, Laxus. Every good _Tante_ has one."

"Well. Kudos. The place looks great. Does Jellal know?"

"Not yet. He will, though."

It was hard to say how he'd take the news. Laxus could see it going either way. The Prayer and all of its disgusting secrets was special to him in ways Laxus would never understand.

Erza said, "Thank you for making sure Juvia wasn't hurt earlier, by the way. She made it home safely."

He scrubbed the back of her neck. "We were going to drive her."

"It was easier this way. Interrogations make her uncomfortable."

"My old man used to say the only people that didn't like questions were those with something to hide."

"He knew plenty about that, didn't he?"

For the first time ever, Laxus considered maybe Erza held some of the Cardinal business against him. It wasn't _his_ fault his old man was a psycho, though. He'd renounced him so hard, he'd shot him dead. "Erza..."

"Mira's upstairs waiting for you." Erza stepped aside and pointed to a set of stairs that ran up the side of the room.

Like a coward, Laxus took the out she gave him. Some things were awkward and better left unspoken. "Thanks."

"If you need another drink, just tell Mira to call." She drifted away into a crowd.

Laxus clutched his drink but didn't sip it, ever suspicious. What if Erza _did_ know about Seilah? What if she was in on it? What if for her next trick, she didn't kill someone rich and powerful but a fucking suspended detective that had a penchant for getting his nose into places he wasn't supposed to?

_Stop freaking out._ It was his decision to come here after all.

Laxus mounted the stairs one at a time. Halfway up, he realized he hadn't asked _which_ room Mira was in. Erza wasn't anywhere to be seen, though, so he continued up to the loft above.

Up here was decorated in much the same way the downstairs was, too. Red lights, iron vines. There were hallways upon hallways lined with rooms where either the priest used to live or where orphans used to sleep.

The doors were once plain but now they were adorned with words.

One, reading _Colpa,_ for guilt, was opened and Mira's familiar frame filled the gap. She'd put on a lot of makeup to cover up her stress but it showed in her eyes and the way her mouth down-turned. She was still beautiful, her hair coiled ropes against an orange floral wrap and a small black shift she wore. Laxus reminded himself not to be lulled by her familiarity or all the things he loved about her, not when he suspected she knew a little more about everything than she was letting on.

"Hi, Laxus."

Her voice sounded good, though. "Were you working?"

"A bit."

Laxus was miffed. "Does Erza appreciate the fire she's playing with hiring you on after her mother fired you from Somnium?"

She shrugged. "Purgatory is Erza's. She makes the decisions."

"People get cut loose in this town for less."

"I'm safe," Mira said.

"Everyone thinks their safe until they're swimming with the fish."

" _Tante_ Eileen likes to burn her victims, not sink them. It covers the evidence better."

"Are you joking?" Laxus demanded.

"Yes." She smiled a little. "I don't know what she does."

"Comforting."

"I'm _safe,"_ Mira insisted. "And safer still if you'd come in."

She knew how to manipulate him and Laxus knew how to let himself get manipulated. He stepped inside the small and modest room. There was a single bed with the sheets mussed, a nightstand with a lamp that shone with black light. More vines and the floors were still plain wood. For all of the renovations, Erza worked on a budget. It worked, though.

When the door was closed and the music was blocked out, Mira said, "It was getting so late, I didn't think you'd come."

"I got hung up with police work."

"I heard. I had some detectives come and talk to me about Lisanna."

"Cheney and Eucliffe?"

"Yeah. They had a lot of questions but I didn't know anything. The only thing they managed to do was freak me out. They said she was taken unconsciously."

"Yeah."

Mira pressed the back of her hand to her lips. "I'm so worried."

Her genuine concern threw him. If she really knew about Seilah and was in cahoots with her, would she be so out of her mind? "They'll find her."

Mira sank to the bed. "I wish it was you."

"Yeah, me, too, but the case got taken from me and then I got fucking suspended."

She lifted her eyes. "You did?"

"Ultear made me give up my gun and my badge, so yeah."

"Because you went with Juvia?"

"She told you about that?"

"I was there when she told Erza. I wish I went with you guys, too, instead of sticking around here and helping Erza set up. God, I feel so stupid. Now Lisanna's out there with Kyouka and Kagura and that creep that was carrying her around. When I find them…" Her fingers curled and there was real violence in her eyes.

"I'm sorry I couldn't get your sister." His failure seemed all the more real sitting in her presence. He didn't know what he was thinking, coming here when he was trying to get _away_ from those thoughts. Mira made him do crazy things.

Mira pinched her bottom lip between her teeth and wrung her hands together. There were some not-so-generous things on her tongue, he could see through the pained expression she wore, but when she spoke, it was to tell him, "You tried. You were shot at and suspended because you were trying to help save my sister. It's okay.

Subtly was an art; Laxus never gave much of a fuck about art. "The night Jose Porla was killed you had a customer."

"Yeah. So?"

"She was the same customer that attacked me out in the alley. She had a gun that she dropped. We grabbed it and ran the prints."

"Alright," she hedged, looking _concerned_ but not freaking out as Laxus suspected she might.

"They belonged to a Seilah Balam."

Mira blinked. "Seilah? Kyouka's Seilah?"

"Yes."

She shook her head. "I think I'd know if I had that hag in my bed. That girl was not Seilah Balam. _Tante_ Eileen would _never_ have let her in, and even if she _did,_ Erza _never_ would have allowed it."

" _Tante_ Eileen was away from Somnium last night; Erza was taking over for her."

"So you think she let Seilah in?"

"Maybe."

"And me, too?"

"She _was_ in your room."

"Oh my god, Laxus. Do you hear yourself? Then what? I let her poison my next client? I guess I told that asshole to come into Somnium and say all those terrible things about me, too, right?"

"Give me an alternative conclusion."

Mira stared at him, as if trying to get a read, then, when she decided he wasn't playing around, she stood and started to pace. "You think I took to bed the girl that dropped me in a parking lot for the Cardinal to kill? That I was _okay_ with that? That _Erza_ was okay with that? Because both me _and_ Erza suffered at the Cardinal's hands. He took my brother and almost killed Erza. He's the reason Lisanna was put in that fucking asylum. He and Kyouka and Seilah are the reason my entire life is _fucked up_ and you think that instead of killing her like she deserves, _I took her to bed_ , and failed to mention completely that she was in Somnium."

The small room amplified her voice; Laxus thought it was soundproofed, though, so maybe no one would burst in and see what the problem was. Was that safe? What if someone needed help in there?

Mira jarred his wandering thoughts. "Are you fucking listening to me?"

"Yeah, Mira, I'm listening, but what else am I supposed to think?" Laxus asked. "I don't think the prints lied. So how did she fool you, Erza, and Angel? How did she just walk through Somnium like she owned it? How did she sit at the bar for like an hour before she got up and left to have a smoke? Tell me, because I'm fucking flabbergasted."

Mira bit her cheek hard and went to the small stand beside her bed. There was a pad of paper and a pencil in the drawer and doodles of rotting flowers that were actually quite good. Laxus thought back to the crayon and blood on the walls in the safe house. He guessed art ran in the Strauss family. She didn't pull out the pad of paper but her cell phone which sat on top of it. she scrolled through the images and landed on one she'd taken of another sketch pad in a room in the precinct Laxus recognized.

"Those other detectives made me describe her. This is the girl I had upstairs." She waved it in his face.

"That's the _same girl_ , Mira," Laxus told her.

She snorted in frustration. "Okay, idiot, but _this isn't Seilah_. I don't know _who_ this is. Just some stranger that's decided she likes girls."

Laxus tapped his fingers on his leg impatiently. "Do you have a picture of Seilah?"

She turned to her phone again and had an image search pulled up in an instant, Kyouka standing outside of Somnium back when it first opened. Behind her was a girl with a head full of chestnut hair. Laxus took the phone and zoomed in, then compared it with the drawing, flipping back and forth between her apps.

The faces _were_ different. They were also the same, though. It was in the eyes. Both women had the same dead stare. "She had plastic surgery. She changed the way she looked." Which meant that for the last six months, she'd been able to walk around anywhere and do anything. She was someone new.

Mira looked revolted. "You're telling me that's the same person?"

"Look at her orbital bones," Laxus pointed out. He was good at marking the differences, had always been. "This is definitely the same woman. She's changed her nose, though, and shaved her cheekbones. Her lips are different, too."

"Oh, god." Mira rubbed her hands down her arms like she could peel her skin off. "Fuck. Seriously?"

"Yeah." There wasn't much sense trying to be gentle. She already felt violated and there was no going back.

She sat again and wrapped her arms around her body. "God."

"I'm sorry, Mira."

She didn't hear him. "Why would she do that? What did I ever do to her? What does she get from ruining my life?"

"You took away her _Tante,_ " Laxus said. "And you didn't tell anyone that she was locked up in Somnium's basement."

"I didn't know anything about that," Mira said defensively. "Only what Erza just told me."

Again, was she lying? Laxus didn't _know._ Her eyes were wet, though, and there was a slight tremble in her muscles that would be incredibly difficult to fake unless you were totally psychopathic. _Like her sister_ , whispered a small and mean voice in Laxus' mind. That wasn't _fair,_ though. Lisanna had issues that went above and beyond anything inherited. She'd been drugged to the point of brain damage and forcibly molested and when that wasn't quite bad enough, she watched her brother beat those men to death. She had problems on her problems on her problems.

He felt helpless all over again and wished for his badge back, his gun, his partner. They could find her if they only had the chance.

Mira swiped at her eyes, smearing her makeup. "Fuck. My whole fucking life, nothing ever happens the way its supposed to. Why does this shit happen to me?"

Laxus was of the mind that people made their own luck, which meant they made their own misfortune, too. Mirajane was a mess. A hot mess, but a mess all the same. She cobbled everything together, was impulsive, and jumped on bad decisions like they were landmines and she was addicted to the danger. He didn't know how to politely tell her she was a walking disaster; he didn't think she'd appreciate it.

"I don't know."

She leaned back against the headboard. "I feel so…"

"Violated?" Laxus supplied.

"Yeah. Violated. Is that stupid? I mean, I have people in my bed all the time and it's never really bothered me before. Even when it was Superintendent Torres before I knew he was a creep. This feels different, though."

"She snuck around and had sex with you under the guise that she was someone else, all to poison one of your customers," Laxus said. "I'd feel violated, too."

Some of Mira's sharp edges softened. "You believe me, then?"

He heard himself say, "I trust you."

She fiddled with her orange shawl for a long time without speaking; Laxus wondered if he'd said something wrong. Finally, Mira said, "Erza doesn't think I should see you if you're in love with me."

"She made that pretty clear."

"She's just trying to protect me."

They very rarely got to this territory but Laxus was feeling crazy enough to navigate rocky waters. "I get it. The job's a little limiting, but you could leave. Or run a different part of it. I thought you were going to start in the bar?"

"Erza needed me to do the other work," Mira said. "Before Natsu stepped in and paid off Lisanna's guards to get her out and fucked everything up, we were trying to get connections to—"

"This sounds very much like you shouldn't be telling me," Laxus interrupted.

"Probably not," she agreed.

"It didn't work out anyway."

"No."

"Then I don't need to know."

She put her head back and her hair fell away from her cheeks. They, and her eyes were dry now, the smeared makeup was on her ringed fingers. "You'd think I'd be used to the barriers. Elfman used to put them up all the time. I thought we'd get to talk about them eventually but there are parts of his life that I'll never get to understand now."

"He didn't want you to think of him as the person he was when he was working for Zeref."

"You don't think you can really segment yourself like that, do you?"

She wasn't challenging him, she wanted an honest answer. "I think a person can be a lot of things to different people. Yeah. I think he could be Zeref's go-to guy and I think he could be the brother that loved you, not both at the same time, but in different circumstances."

"Like you can be a cop and my paramour?" she said with a quirked smile.

"Paramour makes it sound so illicit."

"I know. That's why I like it." He smiled despite himself and Mira softened further. "I'm glad you came to see me. It looks like you needed to."

"Maybe." Was it healthy to need to see how fucked up she was to feel like he was on stable ground? Not at all. A psychiatrist would have a _field day_ examining their poisoned relationship. He vowed never to mention it in Meredy's presence.

Mira sat up straighter and it was like their whole conversation, and the tension between them, never really happened. "What do you think of my new room?"

"It's not as nice as the old one," Laxus said truthfully.

"Purgatory's got a smaller budget than Somnium but once we make a name for ourselves, Erza promised renovations."

"And security?"

"We have guys patrolling and I have a panic button if I need someone." Mira tapped the back of the dresser beside a discrete red button.

"A panic button."

"Yeah. I just press it and armed enforcers are waiting to rush in. They're residuals from when _Tante_ Alba had the Prayer."

"And the drugs?"

"I think that should be a compartmentalized segment of our relationship," she said.

"I don't care what happens in Purgatory's other rooms. I care about what happens _here._ " Drugs scared him like they used to scare Mira. What scared him, even more, was how Mira was able to go from abhorring them to leaning on them in times of need.

Love and hate weren't really that far apart, though, were they? He knew that.

Mira splayed her hands out against the wool blankets. Her nail polish was both black and chipped. "I haven't since the last time you saw me at Somnium."

"Good."

Her smile was small. "Are you going to sit down?"

He hadn't noticed but he'd been loitering awkwardly in the centre of the room. "I guess." He had nowhere else he needed to immediately be.

_Home?_

Chances were, his grandfather was _probably_ asleep and wouldn't miss his absence for another couple of hours.

There wasn't much room so he kicked off his shoes and took the other end of the bed, putting each of his legs on either side of Mira's. She leaned forward and took his drink from his hand, gulping back a few mouthfuls well before he could tell her to wait. He held his breath. Mira looked at him quizzically.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said and took the drink back from her, taking his first sip. It was luke-warm now, the ice cubes melted to small islands that got stuck in his throat. He drank more to get them out.

"That's better." Mira ran her toes over the inside of his leg. His jeans were thin and tight and she had no trouble finding all the things she shouldn't.

"Is Erza going to be as stingy as her mother?" Laxus felt obligated to ask. "Because I was suspended without pay."

Mira laughed. "There are certain people that have a free-pass in Purgatory. You're one of them."

"Kind of her."

"Kind of _me_ , it's only because I asked," she informed him.

"This already sounds like a better place to work."

"It will be. Purgatory is going to change a lot of things." She stopped playing with his dick with her toes so she could swing her legs over his hips. She fit in his lap like they were made for each other, her shift pulling up over her wide hips and her shawl getting forgotten somewhere near the end of the bed. Laxus held her thighs between his hands and looked up at Mira lording above him. She was white and silver. She was secrets and lies. She was all he could think about on the best of days, sneaking into the back of his mind even when he had something important to be doing.

"I do think I love you," he lamented.

"I love you too, I think," she returned and sealed it with a kiss that went from closed-mouthed to opened. Her scent filled his nose, her hands cupped his face. Laxus sat up so he could drop his julip on the nightstand, then he focused all of his attention on Mira. Getting her clothes off, kissing her where she'd let him, arching into her wherever he could. She was panting but it wasn't enough, not yet. Biting got her to a place that was more enjoyable for her, pressing into her second entrance, pulling her hair and saying terrible things in rough ways in a low voice that made her sigh.

What really changed the game, though, was when Mira reached back and grabbed her phone again. She pulled up her texts and tapped something into the screen.

"What are you doing?"

"Picking up where we left off the other day."

Before Laxus could ask what that meant, she pushed him down and climbed up so her legs were pressing his shoulders down and she was easily reachable by tongue.

He was trapped like that beneath her when the door opened and another person entered. Cana was only recognizable by her chestnut hair.

There were no introductions, no awkward talk. The door closed, clothes hit the floor, and another set of legs were taking up position on either side of Laxus' head. He had to satisfy himself with hearing Mira's moans, he couldn't see her and could barely touch her, only able to curl his hands around her legs and pull her down more firmly against his tongue.

She came before he could get tired and turned around. Her hands worked on his pants while Cana took her place more completely. Laxus turned off his brain and thought about a lot of nothing except for how it felt when Mira moved over a little and he felt two tongues instead of just one, how it looked when he traded between fucking Mira, then pulling out and fucking Cana's mouth. He felt like an animal and he didn't care. Animals didn't have worries. They weren't suspended from their jobs, they didn't have ailing families, they didn't care that they loved difficult women.

* * *

It was sometime around dawn when Laxus untangled himself from arms and legs and lifted over Mira to get off the small bed. She woke up briefly enough to kiss him and say goodbye. Cana didn't move, totally passed out.

Laxus dressed quietly, saving doing up his belt for out in the deserted hallway.

There were only two people on the main floor, Erza and the girl Jellal had paid off to get into Somnium with their guns sitting at the bar. _Brandish_ , he thought.

"Hang on," Erza said before he could slink out.

"What's up?"

"You were looking into who sold out Mira's bookings, right?" Erza asked.

Captain Milkovich trilled in his head. Laxus did the responsible thing and said, "The case isn't mine. If you have information, direct it toward Detectives Cheney and Eucliffe."

"We don't want to talk to them," Erza said plainly.

All he wanted to do was go home, apologize to his grandfather for being such a shitty grandson, make breakfast and crash. He hesitated, though, because any information was good information, and that information would aid in the recovery of Lisanna. "Alright."

Erza patted the seat beside her at the bar. There was another julip waiting for him. She pushed it into his hands. "Go ahead, Brandish," she said only after Laxus had taken a sip.

"It was me," Brandish said in that bored way she had. "Someone paid me to go into _Tante_ Eileen's office and copy the book. Like a month ago."

"Who?"

"Based on her description, I'm positive it was Seilah Balam," Erza said.

First was disbelief. "And you just _did_ it?"

Brandish shrugged. "It seemed harmless at the time. She said she wanted to know who Mira was seeing so she could decide if she was an escort she wanted to hire. I said okay because I was short on cash and _Tante_ Eileen kept cutting back my hours."

"Because you could be bought, likely," Laxus muttered.

"Everyone has a price," Brandish said. "Even high and mighty detectives like you."

"That's not really what's in question right now," Erza said. "Brandish has a deposit into her bank account that you can get your people to trace back to its source. You can find out who's been pulling the strings behind the Nightshade killings, who's funding Seilah and—"

"And if we get a warrant, maybe we can find out if she's bought any properties in that name, track her and Lisanna down before things get messy."

If they weren't already.

"Thanks, Erza." Gone was his tiredness. He jogged out of Purgatory and got Captain Milkovich on the line. She was really upset to hear from him at first but Laxus talked quickly and eventually, she got behind what he had to say.


	20. Chapter 20

**_ XX: Jellal _ **

Despite having only two hours of sleep, Jellal woke when his alarm told him to and got into his running gear. Beau waited impatiently for her leash, pacing back and forth, but once that was on, she stuck to his side like a burr, as he'd trained her to. The elevator scared her so they took the stairs.

The first thing Jellal noticed when he got outside was that Laxus' Jeep was still in his neighbour's parking spot and there was a nasty note left under the wiper blade. After great debate, Jellal hunted for the spare key magnetized under the bumper and moved the vehicle out into the street so Laxus didn't get a ticket. He was still feeling a little fucked off about everything, though, so he put Beau in the front seat while he did it. Let Laxus flip out over the hair. It seemed a fair price to pay for all the 'yes, Captain's,' he'd thrown around recently. Was he concerned with the case or with his reputation? Jellal, whose reputation had always been on the rocks, knew which was most important to him.

Starting out his run was hard. Motivation felt a million miles away. Once he got three kilometers in, though, he found a rhythm. Cold air froze his lungs and unploughed sidewalks made going fast difficult. He wasn't the only one braving the street, though, other runners were making the same trek.

Beau kept him upright when his running shoes slipped on the sidewalk and almost put him on his ass. She didn't look happy about being used as a ballast. She looked even more concerned, though, when he tried to save her shoulder from being wrenched and fell on his butt and got soaked. Some smart mouth in a truck laughed at him. He flipped them off without remorse, though once he was up, he cut down a way he reserved for when the weather was either too hot or too snowy and shaved five kilometers off his twenty-kilometer route. This way brought him by Laxus' place.

He tried to sail past the house but he'd always been a detail man. The walkway was unshovelled and the Saturday paper still sat in the driveway. Generally, Makarov snagged that after Laxus had hauled his ass out of bed and shovelled the driveway.

Jellal slowed to a walk and altered his route, slogged up the driveway, trying not to get snow in his shoes. The front door opened before he could knock on it and Makarov peered at him through the glass of the screen door.

"Is Laxus with you?"

"He was last night," Jellal said.

"I'm looking for morning Laxus, not last night Laxus," Makarov replied irritably.

"He didn't come home?"

"No. I'm calling the precinct but that captain of yours hasn't been answering her phone," Makarov griped.

"Did the front desk transfer you?"

"Yes. The phone went to voicemail."

"She could be busy." Magnolia had more than enough crime to keep even the most seasoned busy but with the emergence of the Nightshade killer and its ties to the Cardinal case coming back into the light, she must have just been drowning.

"Too busy to answer her phone?" Makarov snorted. "We'll see what she has to say in person."

It was then Jellal noticed the winter boots on Makarov's feet and the hat on his balding head. "Your Jeep's sitting on the road outside of my apartment." _And_ Makarov couldn't drive it, he'd had his licence pulled.

"Don't you think I know that? I was going to walk. Ain't nothing wrong with my feet."

"I don't think going out is a good idea, Mister Dreyar," Jellal said. "It's been storming, it's cold, the city's built up a lot and can be confusing."

The last got Makarov really mad. "Not you, too. Don't you start telling me that I can't go out in the world. I've been doing this for ninety years, boy, did you know that? I think I can put on my own damn boots and drive to the precinct."

Again, Jellal said, "Your Jeep's sitting at my apartment, you can't drive anywhere."

Makarov's face screwed up. "Did you take my jeep?"

"No, Laxus dropped by last night."

He thought hard on that. A connection was made in his brain. "Before you two went after the sister of that girl Laxus loves. I saw it on the news."

"Right."

"You weren't supposed to, though. You'd been taken off the case."

Laxus must have told him the news. Jellal ignored the flush that climbed up his cheeks. He respected Makarov Dreyar, ex-captain of the Magnolia Police Department's Nineteenth Precinct, and didn't want him to think he was a total fool, so he fibbed. "We were following another lead."

"That you weren't supposed to be following. You two have got yourselves in hot water."

"We've been in worse."

He shook his head and spoke like he hadn't heard Jellal. "Insubordination, disregard of protocols, engaging in a firefight in a populated area." He blinked. Blinked again. Then his expression clouded. "You and Ivan are suspended. Hand in your guns and your badges."

"Laxus, you mean?"

He ignored Jellal and continued. "You put everyone in danger when you do reckless things like this. Do you not understand? I expected this kind of thing from Ivan, but not from you, Obra. It's completely irresponsible. I don't care if you two have brought in three major dealers in the last year, this kind of behaviour looks poorly on the precinct, on your family and on mine—"

"Grampa?"

Makarov trailed off and looked over his shoulder. Wendy was there, standing in the kitchen doorway. He stared at her. Jellal watched the cogs in his brain churn and churn and churn. The teeth had been stripped but eventually, one grabbed and his mind engaged, pulling him into the present. "Wendy."

She smiled with false cheer. "Your toast just popped and I found the blueberry jam."

"Oh." The corners of his mouth moved slightly north. "That old hag hid it, didn't she?"

"Because there's a lot of sugar in it," Wendy said.

"Sugar's good for you, girl, don't let your granma tell you different." He winked at her.

Wendy's smile turned sad-tinged. "It's sitting for you on the table, hurry up before it gets cold."

Makarov waddled away from the doorway. Wendy watched him until he disappeared into the kitchen, then came to the door. "Sorry."

"Was that one of his infamous episodes?"

She nodded.

"Who's Obra?"

"Ivan's old partner," Wendy confided in a low whisper. "He took off from the police department around the same time Ivan did, and they found him shot in the next town over. They couldn't ever link it to Ivan, but…"

But it seemed likely, given Ivan's record.

"Anyway. Those episodes only really happen more when Grampa's stressed or tired, and he's both right now. Laxus didn't come home last night and didn't call until just a minute ago."

"Where is he?"

"He said something about work." She shrugged.

Work? Though he was suspended? Jellal scowled. "Can I use your phone?"

"I guess, but where's yours?"

"I don't take it with me running," Jellal said impatiently.

Wendy pulled hers out and gave it over. The back was pink and sparkly with flowers. Jellal turned his back to her and punched in Laxus' number. It rang four times and then he answered. "Unless something's wrong, Wendy, I'm in the middle of something and—"

"Are you at the precinct right now?" Jellal already knew his answer, he could _hear_ Ultear's voice.

Laxus quieted. "Jellal?"

"Are you working?"

"No."

"Then why are you there? You're not supposed to be." Like Laxus didn't know the rules.

"It's complicated. The girl that swiped Mira's bookings and sold them confessed. Major Crimes is tracing the deposit into her bank account right now—"

"So you're working."

"No."

"Sure sounds like it."

"Listen—"

"I'm coming in."

"No—"

Jellal hung up and tossed the phone back to Wendy. She barely caught it. "What's wrong? Jellal?" she called after him but Jellal and Beau were already so far away, he couldn't respond to her without yelling.

He ran all the way back to his apartment and upstairs, where he had the quickest shower of his life, and threw on whatever clothes were on the floor. That ended up being a pair of dark jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt. He had the sense to make sure Beau had food and water before he left, then he took the elevator to the main floor and burst outside. Wind bit through his sleeves and reminded him he'd left his coat inside. That was fine. He had his keys and that was all that mattered.

A black Towncar was parked behind his Charger, blocking his exit. The window rolled down and Angel peered out, her white-blonde hair done in a single braid and her bangs fluffed on her forehead. " _Tante_ Erza wants to see you."

"I don't have time right now."

"She asked me to make sure you made time." She seemed so serious, Jellal paused.

"Is she okay?"

The only thing Angel said was, "Get in the car, Detective."

"I really can't, Angel, I had something come up at work and—"

"I was told you were suspended."

"Yeah, okay, I _was_ —"

"Has that changed?"

"Well, no, not exactly—"

"Then the only place you're supposed to be is not at the MPD. Get in."

Jellal's phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out to see Ultear's name on the screen. She said, _There's no reason for you to come in. Ignoring me will result in further disciplinary action._ So formal.

Angel tapped her fingers on the steering wheel impatiently. "I have other things I need to do today, Detective. Hurry up."

Jellal deliberated. _This is the better choice_ , reasonable him stated. Smarter. Further disciplinary action meant he was let go. His record was already smeared up enough. What would he do without the MPD? Security guard? There wasn't the same _thrill._

Erza had never felt like the safe bet but today, he chose her and pulled open the passenger's door.

The entire car smelled like leather and hairspray and something else feminine. Perfume or flowery deodorant or something. Angel put her foot down and the car lurched forward, crunching over snow and then spinning out into the street.

Jellal tried to make conversation because that seemed like the polite thing to do but Angel wasn't interested in what the weather was doing or if she had plans for her scheduled days off. She was as stoic as a sloth, though she was twice as fast, smacking his hand away from the music dial when he tried to turn on the news.

"Alright. I guess we'll sit in silence," Jellal said. He wasn't good at that, though. Two more kilometers passed before he asked, "Have you had any contact with Seilah Balam?"

Angel threw him a bone. "Not that I'm aware of, but with that new face?" she shrugged. "I see a lot of people come into Somnium every day."

"New face?"

"The plastic surgery?" she said like he was daft.

"What?"

"Oh. Do you not know? I just figured because you and Laxus are partners that he would have told you."

"I haven't heard anything," he grudgingly admitted.

"Trouble in paradise?" she teased.

"Just fucking tell me, Angel."

"Being a police officer, you'd think you'd be more civil."

"I'm not on the clock."

"Then I guess we can all just act the way we want. In that case, I hate you. You're as useless as a dildo with no one to hold it and no suction cup." She went fast around a corner, not toward closed Somnium nor toward the parking garage but toward old town.

Jellal ignored the jibe. "So Seilah got plastic surgery and that's how she was getting into Somnium unnoticed."

"Guess so," Angel muttered.

Jellal felt relief. That meant maybe Erza and Mira weren't in this neck-deep. Maybe Seilah was honestly just that tricksy. "Did you ever have any conversations with her? I mean, when she was pretending to be someone she wasn't."

"I check people for weapons, Detective. I watch the crowd. I don't have conversations. She never gave me any grief and Mira always handled her." Angel made another sharp turn and the Prayer came into view. _Not the Prayer anymore_ , Jellal reminded himself when he saw the brand-new sign. _Purgatory._ The place where people spent their sins so they could gain favour and virtue once again. He wondered if _Tante_ Alba would smile or scowl. She believed in no god, no heaven, no hell. Her business was getting people on their knees, but the Prayer had been _hers_. She'd weathered more storms than a sea captain to keep her doors open.

Angel slowed the car and Jellal realized they were pulling into Purgatory's parking lot. His guts knotted up. "What's this?"

Angel said, " _Tante_ Erza's waiting for you inside. Make sure to let Tilda check you. She gets kind of techy when you refuse."

"Who?"

Angel reached over him and threw the door wide, her stance very, very clear. Jellal got out, figuring Erza would be more forthcoming with her answers.

He evaluated that thought as cold winter air buffeted his face. Erza was the _queen_ of taciturn.

Snow had been pushed down by hundreds of feet moving in and out of the Prayer's doors. _Purgatory,_ Jellal thought again. _Purgatory._ The Prayer was long gone. He couldn't help it, though, the old church still had that _je ne sais quoi_. Ugly-pretty, monstrous, a house of worship that had turned into a house of sin. It still bled _Tante_ Alba from all the walls. There may have been a new sign on the door but even the gardens, covered in snow as they were, were _hers_.

He was aching well before he got to the door and the chasm in his chest only gaped wider when he stepped inside and got his first peek at what Erza had done with the place. There was a vestibule where there'd never been one before, and there was a giant of a woman sitting stone-faced waiting to pat him down. Tilda, he figured.

"Hi."

She looked very no-nonsense and searched for hiding spots for weapons with efficiency, not a word spoken. Finally, she was satisfied and waved him through.

The smell of alcohol and sweat and sex smacked Jellal in the face, so familiar. The total renovation kept him from being thrown back in time, though. It was the Prayer and it was not. There were tables instead of pews and a stage where the dais had been. No crosses that he could see, and a bar that looped gracefully, glass bottles backlit and twinkling in white light.

He thought _Tante_ Alba would like what'd been done with it. Jellal was on the fence. The thorny vines all over the wall made him remember opening that trap door in Kardia Cathedral and looking down and seeing _Tante_ Alba naked and dead and crowned in thorns and wet with residual holy water.

Erza came out of a door on the stage and scattered Jellal's thoughts. The remnants of a suit hung on her body, her legs in blue pants, her top half covered by a black lacy shirt. Her black heels _clunked_ on hardwood.

"Hi."

"Hey." Erza sat down on the edge of the stage and that was that; she didn't look interested in moving and sitting at a table like adults. Jellal remained standing in front of her, close enough that he could feel her body heat through the legs of her pants. Her makeup was smeared a bit beneath her eyes and she looked like she could be ready for bed.

He led with the only rational thing he could think of. "You didn't tell me you bought the Prayer."

"It wasn't public knowledge," Erza said.

"I didn't think I was the public." Her lips mushed together in her _displeased_ expression. He didn't _care_. "This is something you mention to the guy whose apartment you have a key for." He didn't have claim to _Tante_ Alba's things, when she died, he took care of the funeral and the bank took care of everything else, she only _had_ the Prayer, no cars, no other property, but he thought he at least deserved to _know_ when her life's work was being fucked with.

Erza drew in a short breath. "You're right."

He was so surprised, "I am?" slipped out.

"Yeah. I wanted to tell you but my mother likes her secrets. I would have liked your input on things, to make it into a place _Tante_ Alba would approve of."

Jellal was ready for more of an argument so when she just gave way like that, he stumbled and didn't know what to say. "Oh."

Erza spread her legs and reached for his arm, pulling him in closer. She wasn't affectionate, typically, she was prone to fits of needy fucking, touching, kissing, but this was _different_. She didn't immediately kiss him or grab him or undress him. She ran her fingers up over his long-sleeves to his shoulders and played with the hair at the nape of his neck with fingernails painted matte burgundy. "I did what I could to keep the ambiance the same when I redecorated. For you. I knew it was a special place."

Jellal tried to hold onto his righteous anger. "You should have told me."

"I should have, I'm sorry." Her fingers made their way deeper into his hair. "If you want, we can go over the renovations again and you can pick out the things you don't like. I'll change them."

Jellal looked around the club. The Prayer and Purgatory could have come from the same chain. Every detail down to the wrought-iron chairs and the mural of a dark-skinned queen behind the bar, holding out her hand to some invisible lover was _right._ Except… "The thorns—"

"They're defiance," she said. "Neither of us will be afraid of them because one man thought he could use them to terrorize."

When she put it that way, the angry little monster in his chest was placated. _Tante_ Alba _would_ like that. "It's nice."

A door on the top floor opened and Mira's silvery hair could be seen. She had a brunette by the hand and led her downstairs. Jellal recognized the slope of the girl's nose and her high cheekbones immediately, Somnium's bartender. He thought he understood what Laxus was doing there earlier. But… "Didn't your mother fire Mira?"

Erza tipped her head and watched the girls descend. "She gave Purgatory to me, though. Legally, I make the hiring decisions."

Mira pecked Cana on the cheek before sending her off. She then went to the bar and grabbed an olive and munched on it. "Hi, Detective."

"Hey, Mira."

She spread her hands over the bar. "What do you think of the place?"

"I have mixed feelings."

"You, me, and everyone that steps in here, baby. If you didn't think it was a little bit bad, what's the point?" She winked and drifted away.

"Whether your mother gave you Purgatory or not, she's going to be _furious_ Mira's working here." Not that he knew the Spider well, but her wrath was a thing of legend. No one crossed her or if they did, they ended up dead. Or tortured in a basement for six months.

Erza said, "Probably. She'll probably be mad that I cut the ribbon so soon, too."

"What do you mean?"

She smiled. It wasn't as distant as her smiles _usually_ were but there was an edge to it that was far away. "I was supposed to wait a year before opening the doors. Give people time to forget about the Cardinal and the Nightshade killer."

"But you opened it anyway."

"It was risky but I think, ultimately, the right move. Now we have money coming in and Mira has a place to work."

"You opened a club specifically so you could hire her again?"

Erza shrugged. "Basically."

"Are you trying to stir the shitpot?"

Erza had a meanness to her sometimes. She didn't hold back on it then, it came to her eyes and settled there. "I told her to leave it alone. She wouldn't. This is how I fight back. Everything's above-board, I thought you'd appreciate that."

Sure, but now what?

"Does she _know_ that Purgatory's open?"

"I imagine she's heard by now." And she didn't look at all worried about it. "Be happy for me. I invited you here to celebrate."

"You always want to celebrate."

She lifted her shoulder. "You, too, when you're with me."

Jellal scrubbed his face.

"Relax."

"I can't. This is asking for trouble. You have to see that,"

"What's she going to do?" Erza challenged.

"She has the resources to do anything she wants."

"Yeah, but she'd never punish me."

Jellal thought she was _wrong_ on that front.

"And even if she does, she has no moves to make. Her people are my people. They're loyal to me."

"And to your _mother_."

"My mother's done nothing but alienate herself her whole career. She didn't want to be in the limelight. Everyone thought they were working for Kyouka, and then some stranger steps out of the shadows and says she's been running everything all along? She overlooks everyone because she thinks she's above reproach. Even her most recent business partner is rethinking things."

Jellal thought of the shiny car he saw sitting out front Purgatory that morning. "Acnologia?"

An engine rumbled out in the driveway, stealing Erza's reply. She looked at the door warily as outside, a car door slammed and Purgatory's front opened. Jellal heard Tilda tell someone to _"Wait_ ," and then a short scuffle that ended with a loud crash. Erza tensed. Jellal wished he hadn't given up his gun.

The door burst open and Gildarts came through looking dishevelled and tired and just worn down. Behind him, Tilda was on the floor. It was hard to tell if she was dead or just unconscious. Gildarts nodded to them in turn. " _Tante_. The place is looking good. Detective Fernandez."

Erza pushed Jellal back and slid off the stage. "What are you doing, Gildarts?"

He ignored her question for one of his own. "Where's Mirajane?"

"Not until you tell me what this is about."

His expression turned dry and he started through Purgatory with huge ground-eating steps. Erza was on his heels, grabbing his arm and twisting him around. "I told you to tell me what this is about."

He shook her off. "I think you know."

Erza adjusted her grip, taking his coat instead and wrenching him off the first step and revealing the multitude of guns beneath his coat. Erza's lips disappeared. "Get out."

"I'll be out of here in a minute," he conceded.

" _Now._ "

"All due respect, _Tante,_ I have a job to do."

Two guards appeared at the top of the stairs. Erza repeated, "Out, _now._ " Gildarts ignored her and walked on by. The guards pulled their guns.

Jellal's adrenaline spiked. "Hey!"

Gildarts was collected taking out his gun, aiming and firing without mercy, one, two. Erza yelled; the upstairs door came open and Mira looked at the mess, pale as the guards dropped to the floor.

Gildarts fixed his eyes on Mirajane and aimed. Well before Jellal could get there, Erza shoved him hard, knocking him off balance. He fell on the stairs and the shot went wild, slamming into one of the other doors. Other girls screamed, though no doors opened. Jellal hoped they remained that way.

"Run, Mira!" Erza yelled and Mira slipped, a silver dart sliding through Purgatory's halls.

_"Tante,"_ Gildarts said exasperatedly.

Jellal thought he was too focused on Erza to notice him come up on his left with a sucker punch but Gildarts was as sly as a fox, full of tricks and wizened to many plays. He dodged Jellal's punch and wrenched his arm over the railing, nearly breaking it. Jellal barely managed to stand on tiptoe to get a few added inches of height to prevent that from happening. He punched with his free hand, hit Gildarts in the teeth, and was subsequently hit in the cheekbone with the butt of Gildarts' gun. He saw stars and then he heard a hammer drop back. A gunshot came.

Gildarts gasped, and suddenly, Jellal was free to move. His vision cleared and Erza came into focus standing over Gildarts with her gun pointed and the hammer down. Gildarts grasped his bleeding shoulder. He'd dropped his gun and was eyeing it again. Jellal lunged for it; Gildarts, however, started a scramble up the stairs. Jellal did the only thing he could think of to make him stop and shot at his leg. Gildarts went down and pulled out another gun, moving so quickly, Jellal couldn't see where it had been hidden. He threw himself down below the stair risers. Bottles of liquor exploded behind him, alcohol soaked the floor and the air. Jellal poked his head over the stair and aimed. His shot bit into the floor by Gildarts' chest and only because he'd moved.

Two more rounds were fired, one of Jellal's, one of Gildarts', then Erza's gun went off again and she yelled, "Enough!"

Silence. Jellal felt it safe to lift his head up and peek out. Gildarts' gun was loose in his hand. Jellal aimed for his chest. "Drop it."

"Or?" Gildarts challenged.

"Or I'll blow your fucking head off," Erza spat. She breathed fast and there was blood on the blue of her pants.

"You're not my enemy, _Tante,_ or the Detective. I do have orders to take care of a problem, though, and was told to do it by any means necessary. Appreciate that."

Erza adjusted her grip and shot a furtive look Jellal's way.

Gildarts said, "Doesn't have to be that way, though. Just let me go, I'll make everything nice and quick. Once I'm done, I'll get this place cleaned up, and you'll be ready to open again at nine."

Stubbornly, Erza said, "Mira's not a _problem,_ she's my employee. She's under my protection. I'm not just going to _let_ you shoot her."

"She makes you reckless."

Mira was everyone's ignition source, ready to catch flame and burn them out, Jellal thought. She had that note to her personality that brought out manic behaviour in the most level-headed and made it shine.

"So my mother decides to _kill_ her? She thinks that will make things better?"

He lifted his shoulder. "You've been doing nothing but making bad decisions since she came on the scene. Your mother tried to be reasonable and let her walk away but you won't give her up, so here we are."

Erza screwed up her face and tightened her fingers on the gun. Jellal was once again swimming in the past. He'd seen her wear that expression before, he'd seen her pull the trigger while she'd donned it. He reached over the railing and gripped the top of the gun. She fought him for a moment, but eventually, she let the nose slide so it was pointed at the floor and not Gildarts' chest.

Gildarts struggled to stand. "Your mother isn't going to like that you interfered."

"She's also not going to like when you're arrested," Erza said after a moment.

Gildarts raised his eyebrow and repeated her.

"Yes." She sounded more decisive. "You killed two of my guards, you tried to kill one of my escorts. You trespassed. And I'm calling the police."

Gildarts only looked at her, trying to decide if she was bluffing or not right up until the moment when she picked her phone out of her pocket and dialed emergency services. Then he lurched to his feet. What he'd intended to do, Jellal didn't know, but he stuck his fingers in his shoulder wound and shoved hard.

Gildarts was still surprisingly spry. He grabbed Jellal's wrist with his good hand and twisted it. Bones popped like dry twigs. Jellal lifted his stolen gun in retaliation; Erza had already struck, though, bringing down the butt end of her gun on Gildarts' temple. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he slumped. Erza never missed a beat in telling the emergency operator what had happened.

* * *

It was strange being in the interrogation chair while Major Crimes took a statement. Truth was on his side, and painkillers, enough to make his head fuzzy. They'd helped in resetting his wrist. The doctor was a sadist.

Jellal told Major Crimes everything three times, beginning to end, end to beginning, and middle to beginning to end and afterwards, Erza took his place. Jellal waited for her in one of the precinct's many weather-worn chairs, watching the old wainscoting warp. He was really high, he decided. He didn't really _like_ it. It made him feel weird.

Laxus joined him when the second hour was bleeding into the third. There was cigarette smoke on his breath and he looked just short of having an aneurism. "No one can find Mira and Clive's denying _Tante_ Eileen's involvement. He said he was there of his own volition because of that shit with Seilah. He's saying that Mira _knew_ about her all this time and was sneaking her into Somnium whenever _Tante_ Eileen was gone. It's bullshit. She changed her _face_."

Jellal absorbed that.

"Don't you agree?"

"Sounds right."

"Detectives." Captain Milkovich's voice was a cold splash of water as she rounded the corner in a suit and tie, hair braided over one shoulder. "Go home. We'll handle the rest."

Jellal raked in all of this thoughts. "Captain—"

"You're still suspended. You've made your statement. Unless you have more pertinent information, there isn't any reason for you to remain." She was still all business and sensed his coming protest. "You need to play by the rules, Jellal. You keep showing up where you're not supposed to, you're tangled in everything I can imagine and probably some things I can't. You seriously need to _go home_ and _stay home_ until this is dealt with. I'd like it very much if, when more trouble stirs, your name isn't involved."

What could he do? Stand and leave, he supposed. "Is Erza going to be long?"

"She's making a lot of serious accusations in there," Ultear said. "It's hard to say."

"About?"

She wasn't budging. "Go home."

"Come on." Laxus patted him on the back and stood. "Let's get out of here."

"And if you hear from Miss Strauss, Laxus, I want to know about it, right?" Ultear nudged.

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Captain," Jellal started again.

"Go, Fernandez, or it won't just be a suspension on your record."

Laxus practically picked him up and pointed him toward the door while Jellal was processing that, the pros and cons and what he could actually _accomplish_ by pushing forward and finding out what minimal information he could. By the time he was at the door, he'd decided what Laxus already had, it was the better bet to play it safe.

Jellal felt Ultear's eyes on him all the way out of the building. Only when the door closed behind him did he feel like he was out from beneath the microscope.

The snow had stopped falling but now it whipped by in a damp wind and snuck down the collar of his shirt. He hunched his shoulders and called a cab. It was hard to say whether he waited with Laxus, who smoked by his favourite rock out front of the precinct or if Laxus waited with him.

"You're just as stupid on Percocet."

"I haven't eaten anything."

"Does that kind of thing matter?"

"Probably," Jellal muttered and looked toward the setting sun. The colour was the same scarlet as Erza's hair. "What do you think she's telling them in there?"

"I'm more interested in where the fuck Mira is," Laxus griped. He was staring intently at his phone, willing it to ring. "Clive's not the only enforcer Eileen's got working for her."

Jellal didn't correct the _Tante_. Fuck Eileen. "She'll show up."

"But what if she _doesn't_?"

Jellal didn't know.


	21. Chapter 21

**_ XXI: Eileen _ **

When things went wrong, they found a way to do it _catastrophically_. First, it was the murders at her club. And then it was its doors closing. Though, in all honesty, that may have actually been a blessing in disguise. Somnium was so fucked, she didn't know if it would ever open again. Its reputation was _ruined_.

Though that seemed pretty bad, Eileen's woes had just begun. Gildarts then informed her that their contact in the pharmacy industry had been cheating them. Not only had they been selling Methalyn underhanded to a second buyer, they'd still been charging her full price and not producing. They'd been hiding the missing orders in large shipments, expecting her not to inventory or not to care when a bit went missing here or there. Normally, she wouldn't but someone, somewhere down the line had gotten greedy.

Eileen was so angered by the revelation, she thought she wanted to watch Gildarts put his gun to their contact's head and blow their brains out, but as it turned out she wanted to do it for him and was so impatient, she pulled the trigger before they could get the name of her rival out of that slobbering fool.

She felt vindicated immediately afterwards and untouchable but when an hour eased by and she could think again more clearly, she realized that she had, in fact, been too hasty. She'd plugged a leak in her hull killing that man and cutting off her unknown rival, too, but another had split open. Her supplier, as untrustworthy and crooked as he was, was dead. It was hard to get someone else in a position to make drugs allocated for pharmacies and hospitals around the city gradually and naturally disappear from their supply and turn up in hers.

The money wouldn't dry up immediately, though. She'd be able to sell what she had in stock to keep herself afloat, but she wasn't fooled. Once that was gone, she'd have to start from the bottom again, trolling for crooked health professionals that wanted a little risk to make a lot of profit on the side.

There were more doom and gloom. Gildarts, ever the messenger, had shown up looking stressed and sombre and informed her that Erza, her own flesh and blood, had gone behind her back and opened Purgatory's doors and hired Mirajane again. That was the biggest pisser. That betrayal. The cherry on top of the shit cake.

The way through seemed clear to her then. Kill Mirajane to get back at Erza. Kill Mirajane and people would stop bending over in the streets to vomit themselves dead. Kill Mirajane and fucking sleep again. She hated her.

"Get rid of Mira."

"Erza's security—"

"Cut through them. You're capable. I'll try to fix things on my end. If Acnologia is worth his salt, he should have some strings that he can tug to make things right again." They were supposed to be _partners_ , after all.

Gildarts bowed out without further argument and Eileen dressed.

* * *

Snow hid a myriad of the city's problems. Neglect and garbage and anything else unsavory all got buried away and forgotten about until spring. Eileen liked it. It was cold and inhospitable but beautiful. The snow fell from the clouds gently like feathers, getting pushed back and forth by a light wind before they succumbed to gravity and were flattened beneath the wheels of her Lincoln. Slush sprayed on the curb and on the toes of a brunette. She had choice words for Eileen but none of them made it through the car's windows and soon, they were out of range.

"Did you go with Gildarts last night?"

"Yes, _Tante_ ," Angel replied.

"How did the club look?" Eileen asked.

Angel met her eyes in the rear view. "Busy."

"Despite the killings."

"People love their vices."

And their morbid curiosities. She knew some would go just to see if the Nightshade killer would strike again.

"And Erza? How did she seem?"

"I didn't really speak to her, _Tante."_

"But you saw her."

"She seemed busy. Her and Mira."

_Mira._

"Have you seen them together?"

Angel's blue eyes flicked to the mirror. "Yes, _Tante."_

"How would you describe their relationship?"

"They're close," she said cautiously.

"In love?"

"…Love?"

"Do you think she loves Mira?" What other explanation was there? Only love made people so stupid.

"I suppose. In her own way."

_And you thought you'd have to worry about the detective getting under her skin._ Apparently, she'd not given Miss Strauss enough credit. Her crazy was a black hole that sucked everyone in. None of this was any good.

The car rolled through a left turn on a yellow light and the city changed, became more treed and less bricked. The streets here were sloppier. Angel drove slowly until they came to a long driveway that led up to a squat cottage, and then she gunned it to get over the mound of snow. At first, Eileen didn't think the car would make it but the wheels grabbed on the other side where Acnologia had paid his groundskeeper to shovel and they chugged up the driveway.

Angel put the car in park. "Should I wait, _Tante_?"

"Yes. I shouldn't be long. If there's trouble, I'll text you." Eileen threw open her door and navigated the walk with her head held high. She may have been there for unfavourable reasons but she didn't have to look at the ground, ashamed.

The front door opened almost immediately after she knocked. Acnologia's hair was loose around his shoulders and his shirt was opened enough that she could see his sternum and the tattooed keloid scars on his chest. " _Tante_." He looked honestly surprised and Eileen thought she'd caught him in the middle of something. "I wasn't expecting you."

"Is it a bad time?"

He hesitated. Then shook his head. "No. It's fine."

"That's good. I've had some developments happen on the business front and I need advice," she squeezed out the words with as much pride as one in her position could summon.

"Very well. That's what partners do." Acnologia checked his driveway and spotted Angel in the car. "Does your guard want to come in, too?"

"I think some business is best kept between a Matriarch and her partner."

Acnologia relaxed minutely and stepped aside. Eileen breezed past him.

The house was exactly as Juvia described, tastefully rich in the way that, if you didn't know what you were looking at, you could pass it by. The ivory curtains would have set him back a decent penny, the couches were handmade, if Eileen was any judge, and he'd obviously paid someone to come in and do the decorating. Chic and cozy modern was Acnologia's game here. It was so different from cold and clean _Prodigure,_ which she knew to be all his own influence.

Eileen threw off her long coat and undid her tall boots. Acnologia took the former from her and hung it up on a coat rack by the door. Her boots were left where they lay at the doorway. Eileen helped herself to the couch. Acnologia came behind her toting a pitcher of water and a glass she accepted. He sat beside her in a plume of cologne. There were marks on his neck; Eileen couldn't tell if they were injection sites or bruises left from mouths. It felt rude to ask. She would love to see him squirm, though, reserved Acnologia until the drugs got snorted and the lights were turned down low.

He was carefully casual, again, just like Juvia said, turning his body toward her just slightly to show he was engaged, but also keeping a bit of himself back from her. "What business brings the lovely _Tante_ Eileen to my door?"

"I've just been informed that not only has Somnium closed, my supplier has been compromised."

"I see."

She cut to the chase. "I'm looking for a new one and thought you, of all people, would be in a position to point me in the right direction."

He said, "Black Dragon has always been my product and that doesn't get dealt on mass to the pharmaceutical market."

"Surely, you must know someone." He knew _everyone_.

Acnologia shook his head. "I don't have any connections for Fentanyl. If you considered changing your product, though, we could make something work."

Cocaine required infrastructure she just didn't have, and if she didn't have it, she'd have to get it from somewhere. The logical answer would be Acnologia; she didn't want to be in his debt any more than she was already, though. This was only supposed to be a _game_ ; already, it was getting too real for her _._ "I don't think changing would be a wise course of action for me, especially now with my main source of income closed. I should stay where there's a bigger profit margin."

"And a larger mortality in your customers."

"In some cases, yes."

Eileen wasn't fooling him. "A large percentage overdose _."_

"And yet, I'm never without sales."

"For now. That will change, though. There will be a shift in consumption and your average customer will move on to something safer. And if not, they'll be dead. Either way, you're fucked. Plan for the future, _Tante_. It's a good business practice."

This was _not_ the conversation she'd been hoping for. Eileen rested her arm on the couch and leaned toward him in a way that accentuated her breasts. Juvia had told her how much he appreciated that aspect of a woman's physique. She wasn't disappointed when he looked her over. "I appreciate that, Dragon, I do, but I wouldn't want to compete."

"We wouldn't." Acnologia sat taller. "You will take my Black Dragon and give it to your suppliers and we'll both turn profit."

She stewed in that. "With you on top."

"It is my product."

There was a _je ne sais quoi_ about him that stirred something in her usually only Gildarts could reach. She thought it was because he was a secretive and deadly man, closed off in almost every regard. She didn't share her daughter's same aversion to men like him. She wanted to see the monsters. She liked sidling up next to them and getting into a position where she could dig her blade in whenever she saw fit.

She picked up a piece of his hair and threaded it through her fingers. It was smooth and soft. Acnologia was a vain man and clearly spent time on his appearance. She looked at his keloid scars and wondered what they'd feel like if she touched one. Rough, she discovered, like him. She liked them immediately. "I'm not sure I'm fond of that. I've always enjoyed the top position."

"You could have top in every other venture."

Her phone rang. A look showed her it was Gildarts. She put it on silent, though she desperately wanted to know if Mira was dead. "That would be a tempting offer for someone inexperienced and unused to running their own game."

Acnologia caught her hand on his neck and held it still. "I'm just trying to protect my own business venture. Bordellos and Fentanyl have a lifespan and it seems like this whole city has you in their sights for it."

"Big risk, big reward."

"I've succeeded for many years without taking the risks you have. You're greedy, _Tante,_ and prideful, and both blinds you."

"Pardon?"

"You expect to get but give nothing in return."

"We made a _deal_ and I'm a lady of my word."

"Lies. You weren't ever going to _give_ anything unless it was a bullet in my head."

Eileen leaned away from him; he was no longer playing if he'd ever been. "Why would you say something like that?"

"Your _figlia_ asked me to Purgatory the day it opened and spilled all of your secrets."

"Did she?"

"She told me how you approached me with offers of friendship while you secretly partnered with Zeref. I know the two of you planned to take as much as you could from me before sending your enforcers to cut through me. I know you've been trying to manipulate me this entire time, and all just to humiliate me."

She'd never really hated her daughter before that moment but the feeling was _pure._ Eileen tried to wrench this back around in her favour. "Erza's always hated you, these could be lies for all you know."

"Except her story's been cohobated by Natsu."

"Natsu?" she repeated disbelievingly.

"You sent him to whisper in my ear of unrest between you and Zeref and then you hired him to burn down your warehouses so you'd seem vulnerable in exchange for the release of Lisanna Strauss. You miscalculated how much he hates you and Zeref, though. You're always underestimating people. Is that because you think you're above reproach?"

This entire thing was unfortunate. Eileen didn't panic yet, though. "It seems."

"When you set Lisanna Strauss up, you should have killed everyone important to her to ensure they didn't seek retribution. It's what I would have done."

Eileen sighed dramatically. "I thought about it but hiding bodies becomes tedious and people begin to whisper."

"Better to have them whisper about you than stab you in the back."

Eileen drummed her fingers on her leg. "Yes. I suppose. Lesson learned."

Acnologia faced her more completely. "Your daughter and I considered our next course of action and decided that you and Zeref must go."

Eileen made a play of looking bored while she checked her phone. "Is that so?"

"Miss Strauss has asked for your blood but out of respect, I will give you an opportunity to leave Magnolia."

Her irritation flared. This was just like Acnologia. When she first came to Magnolia, he didn't see her as a threat because she was a woman with very little to her name, and it seemed that years passing and stacks of cash and success after success hadn't done much to change his mind. She put her phone away and gave Acnologia her full attention. "I see."

"If you need resources to leave, I will, of course, be happy to help. Just say the word."

She smiled. "Magnolia is my home."

"It doesn't have to be. A spider lives wherever she makes her web."

"And if I wanted to weave it at your side?"

"I would constantly be watching the shadows for you."

"And you think you won't have to with Erza?"

"She is your daughter. I recognize she'll need to be dealt with eventually."

Betrayal or not, she felt a prick of pride. Erza _was_ her daughter, no matter _how_ she wanted to deny it. They were alike in most ways. The lies and betrayals proved it. "Then I suppose I have no choice. Black Dragon tells me to leave Magnolia and I must obey."

"That would be the wise thing."

Eileen stood and made a show of adjusting her clothing. Acnologia followed her up and was prepared for when she pulled her small pistol from between her breasts. He hit the gun and forced it skywards. Eileen shot a hole in the ceiling. Acnologia grabbed her wrist and wrenched it. She dropped her gun but hit him in the face. For all the good it did. He may have been high; he didn't seem to feel it.

Eileen regrouped and hit him again, this time in the throat and he wheezed and stumbled back. She picked up an expensive vase and brought it down with all her might. Acnologia lurched right; it skimmed off his shoulder and burst against the ground when Eileen dropped it.

Acnologia recovered faster than Eileen did and lunged at her. They went down together, Acnologia on top and Eileen pinned beneath. His hands closed around her throat like twin vices and dug into her flesh without mercy. She felt her throat contract and then her windpipe get closed off. Her lungs heaved.

With her muscles full of adrenaline, Eileen hit at him with everything she had. He was still unaffected; his eyes were cold grey looking down at her, fog on the water's surface, his mouth was a pencil line. There was no rage there, there was no remorse.

Eileen hit him in the cheek and her ring split open the skin above his keloid scar.

_It's not working,_ she realized. She needed to change tactics.

She reached over her head and cut her fingers on shattered blue ceramic; then they felt cold steel.

Acnologia realized what she was doing and loosened one hand on her neck so he could grab her wrist and smash it against the ground. The gun she'd recovered went flying again.

Black spots danced in front of her eyes. _Think_. She would _not_ allow herself to be choked to death on Acnologia's floor because of Erza. _Would not._

The thought of Erza knocked an idea free and she felt foolish.

Acnologia released her hand and went back for her throat; Eileen let him. When she was free, she reached up into her weaved hair and pulled out the little dagger most thought was an ornamental hair clip.

The blade was small and sharp and slid between ribs with the greatest of ease. Acnologia stiffened. Eileen twisted the blade, searching for his lungs and relished the gross wet sound Acnologia made. She stabbed him twice more His hands gave up their death grip and he slumped backwards toward the couch, gripping his ribs and breathing raggedly. His lips stained red; his eyelids drooped and his breathing got shallow.

Eileen stayed where she was for three solid minutes, coughing and hiccupping in choked breaths. Her neck felt all wrong. Swollen. Bruised. Her windpipes _hurt._ Then she heard a noise upstairs and realized that she wasn't alone and that she needed to get out of there.

The coffee table helped her rise; Acnologia watched her feet; it was hard to say if he was still alive or not. He'd be dead shortly if so. Eileen took time only to put on her boots and grab her coat. The rest of the evidence would have to be dealt with later.

She had no idea what to expect when she came outside but the snow was smeared red, there were four dead men littering the ground and one alive, pinning Angel to the car. There was a knife in his hand and he was using his superior body weight to try to slide the blade into her chest. Angel grunted and struggled and stomped on his foot as well as she could without giving him control over the knife.

His back was to Eileen so she gripped her own blade hard and like the spider she was named for, came in for the unexpected kill, sliding the knife over his throat and watching blood soak the car door, Angel, and the ground. He fell.

Angel looked ready to fight again until she recognized Eileen. Her eyes took in her swollen throat, then they searched for more enemies. The grounds were empty; Acnologia's guards were dead. "Are you alright, _Tante_?"

Eileen croaked, "Never better. There're more people inside, though."

Angel took a step toward the door.

"Leave it. We have no idea if there're more of them than we can handle. We need to regroup." Talking _hurt._

Angel nodded once and held open the back door for Eileen. Eileen dropped inside and felt marginally safer. The glass was bulletproof for regular calibers. It was likely Acnologia's men had something bigger, though. They needed to get out while the getting was good. _Where_ were the people that were upstairs? Helping Acnologia? She hoped they prioritized that way. She had no gun and only had one guard. Maybe she was too prideful; a younger and more suspicious Eileen would have come with more firepower.

Angel got into the front seat; the car started moving before she had her door closed. "I have bad news, _Tante._ "

"What now?"

"Before you texted me and I was jumped by Acnologia's men, I got word from our contact in the police department; Gildarts has been arrested."

Eileen's heart paused. "Pardon?"

"He failed to kill Mira. Erza—she called the police on him."

Eileen closed her eyes; there was no peaceful state in her mind; it was war, war, war. _How?_ How had he fucked that up? Mira was nothing special, the only skills she had were those she practiced on her back, and Gildarts was the best killer she'd ever had.

_Fuck._

" _Tante_?"

_Fuck._

" _Tante?_ "

"Take me to the Lakehouse," she decided. "If Gildarts is arrested and Erza was the one that made it so, we need to take appropriate measures."

Angel gunned it down the street without further questions.

Eileen pulled out her cellphone and called Zeref. "Acnologia had to be dealt with sooner rather than later," she said immediately when she heard the phone pick up. "Send someone to his cottage to clean it up. Use caution; there's a mess outside and he might have more guards hanging around."

"He's dead?" Zeref asked.

"I stabbed him myself."

"Good," he said readily. "I'll get my people on it."

"And take care of Mirajane," she tagged on. "I want her dead."

"The last time we spoke, you said Gildarts was handling that."

There was no sense in hiding. "Gildarts has been arrested. Erza's betrayed me."

Zeref got quiet. "I see."

"You can still move freely," Eileen said before he got any ideas and misaligned himself with her. "Erza has nothing on our partnership to share with the police and Gildarts will never talk. Take care of Mirajane and clean up Acnologia's cottage. I'll be in contact with you shortly." She hung up in his ear.

They drove in the vicinity of the hotel Eileen was renting. The parking lot was _crawling_ with police cars. She could just _imagine_ what Erza had said.

Angel pulled into an underground parking garage.

"What are you doing?"

"We need to switch cars." Angel parked beside a green sedan and cut the engine. She unlocked the other car with a key she kept on the same keyring. Eileen followed her in. This car was drab compared to her Lincoln. Perfect for blending in.

"It's clean?"

"Yes. I paid cash and registered it to a nice family down south."

As soon as they were out of the garage, Eileen picked up her phone and started doing some banking. Assuming that the accounts under her legal name were being monitored, she went in through her other account and moved that around so she'd have some funds when she needed them.

That done, Eileen rested her head against the window and watched the world go by. The city was in an uproar. Police were all over. She hoped that Zeref could get to Acnologia's place and wipe away the evidence before it got traced back to her. She could fight off Erza's accusations. Erza didn't have any _proof_ of anything, she couldn't fight off any hard evidence the police picked up at Acnologia's cottage, though.

* * *

It took two hours to reach the Lakehouse. In that time, Eileen got rid of her cellphone and relied on the burner phone she had for emergencies. Using it, she could contact her person in the police department and get pertinent details. For now, though, she'd lay low and contact her lawyer if and when the police caught up to her. She wasn't too worried. She had a long history of slipping on and off the grid whenever it suited her. She had a _ton_ of places just like this Lakehouse where she'd hole up for sometimes months. They could say she was hiding from the law but she'd say she was doing what she'd always done. Her club was closed and she was taking a vacation.

Everything would be fine.

Ice croaked on the beach below, and wind sang through barren trees. The house was warm when she opened it up and smelled like chamomile air freshener.

Angel lingered by the car and made a phone call. Eileen watched her from the doorway, not moving an inch until she dropped her cellphone into her pocket and came up the driveway. "The cops are checking out the homes registered to you. This one isn't in your name, though. We should be okay here for a day or two before we have to consider moving on. Maybe by then, we'll know what we're up against."

Eileen closed the door behind her and locked it. "Did you find out why they were looking? What Erza's said?"

"No one's talking. The only people in the know are the lead detectives on the case," Angel informed her. "It'll come out sooner or later, though."

Stuff like that always did. No one could keep a secret.

"Go clean up, _Tante_. Relax. I'll track down something to help with the swelling." She touched her throat.

Eileen didn't even know if she could swallow. She desperately wanted something, though. She was in a lot of pain. "Thank you."

Angel went to the kitchen and Eileen went to the bathroom. She knew something wasn't right well before she turned on the lights. The air in this part of the house was thick with the smell of iron. There was a gun in her bedroom that she went for first before returning and thumbing on the light switch.

A cold lump of unease balled in her belly. Someone had come into her home and jammed Seilah's dead body into the bathtub. Now she stared at the ceiling with open eyes, a large and dry hole in her chest where she'd been shot.

Noise rushed into Eileen's ears. At first, she didn't know what was happening as the Lakehouse shook. She rushed out of the bathroom, though, and into the kitchen where the windows had burst, and felt the heat of flames coming from her exploded car. Someone had sabotaged them, set them up for a murder and then ensured that they couldn't leave.


	22. Chapter 22

 

**_XXII: Laxus _ **

Laxus' feet took him so far across town, they were aching. He checked for Mira in innocuous places, like in coffee shops and diners. He looked in Be Franks, her favourite bar to go to people watch. Cop watch, actually. She spied the men and women that came in their uniforms after hard shifts. She once said they drank like they meant it. She liked it.

That avenue turned up fruitless, too. He walked past The Barrel, her first haunt, he looked for her at Somnium's closed doors. The only thing he saw there was an empty parking lot and a _Closed Until Further Notice_ sign fluttering against the door.

Laxus stopped by the Prayer again. Or Purgatory now, he supposed. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. The doors were locked; he couldn't get through. He called her phone. Then he called Erza's. Neither one of them answered.

Laxus still held onto a glimmer of hope, though, as he circled back around, picked up his Jeep from in front of Jellal's apartment, and drove first through the Stacks, when he figured she might be looking for her sister, and then past the park at the end of the street by his house, where she'd met her brother, back before the world she held burned right through her hands. He knew it was a special place to her, she watched it every time they drove by like Elfman was just going to pop back up in his car, sitting at the corner.

Of course, there was fucking nothing there then, just like there was fucking nothing there now. He felt as flat and soggy as a squished fly. He U turned the Jeep too fast and got a honk from a woman driving a minivan. He swore at her. She must have been pretty good at lip reading because she laid on her horn long and hard and tailgated him all the way back to his driveway. On another day he'd take down her licence plate and take it further but his head was webs and his guts were full of stones.

Wendy opened the front door long before Laxus made it up the steps. "Is Mira here?" he spouted, thinking that was the only possible reason she could be coming out to see him.

"Mira? No." she shook her head and closed the door. She was in her socks still; the brick steps were free of snow but were cold and covered in salt.

"Your feet are going to get cold." He felt old when he told her stuff like that. Like an adult.

Wendy dismissed his henning. "Your grandfather's had kind of a bad day, Laxus."

He felt a heavy weight settle on his shoulders. "He had another episode?"

"I guess. He's been confused all day," Wendy said. "Mixing people up and forgetting about things like his tea and his lunch. He even forgot to watch _As the World Turns_ , though he told Granma he would." It was their weekday tradition, Gramps would call Porlyusica and they'd leave the phone running on speaker while they watched their show. It seemed they got along better with more distance between them.

"Then he was going around unlocking all the windows and the doors."

"Why?"

"He keeps talking about a kitty," Wendy sighed.

Laxus felt like his stress level was already at the maximum when it edged up a little more. "Where's he now?"

"I scolded him for leaving the garage door open so now he's sulking in his room," Wendy said.

"I'll deal with him." Laxus moved past her into the house. It smelled like dinner in there and there was evidence of quiche on the counter. His stomach didn't even rumble, though it had been a long time between lunch and dinner. He figured he'd make himself eat and take a powernap before he got to work again looking for Mira. He was burning out even if he didn't realize it.

There was once a family photo on the wall. Makarov had gone through fits of plucking it down and setting it face-down on the stand in the hallway ever since Ivan's involvement in the Cardinal killings became known. Today, the picture was dropped to the ground, the frame broken. He suspected Wendy hadn't realized, otherwise, she would have cleaned it up.

Laxus stepped over the mess and rapped on his grandfather's door. He answered almost immediately, calling out, "Yes?"

"Hey." Laxus poked his head into the dingy room. The curtains were drawn and no lamps were on. The only light came from the TV set to the True Crimes channel. He found his grandfather in the pale white glow, standing by the window, where he pushed aside the drapes and reached for the lock. "What are you doing?"

"Letting Kitty in," Makarov spoke with his gentle voice; it held the dreamy quality of one in the cottons of his mind.

Laxus closed his eyes. "We don't have a cat and one's definitely not coming in through the window. Come on." He crossed the room and took Makarov by his thin elbow.

"She's in trouble."

"There's nothing there."

"She's afraid and she's cold. Let me leave the window open a crack for her. She asked."

There wasn't anything there but Laxus looked anyway to placate him; sometimes, that was the path of least resistance. Just a world encased in white. "There's nothing but snow."

"I told you, she's scared; she's hiding." He pushed Laxus aside and reached for the window latch again, tottering on his tiptoes. Laxus knew what was going to happen before it did, so he was ready to catch his grandfather when he over-extended his reach and tipped sideways.

"Let go of me." Makarov tried to push him back. He wasn't nearly strong enough. Laxus kept his hold on his grandfather's shoulders and pointed him toward the bed.

"You need to lie down."

"I'm not tired."

"You are; you just don't know it yet."

"Listen to me when I tell you a thing. I'm not tired. I need to let Kitty in. She's waiting."

"No, she's not."

Makarov struggled against him. "You have to let Kitty in. Let her in."

"There's fucking nothing there." Laxus didn't mean to sound so harsh but this was hard in unexpected ways. It hurt and it made him panic. This irrational, jabbering man wasn't his grandfather. Someone had snuck in and taken control of his body.

Makarov dodged Laxus and went back to plucking at the window. The frame made a popping noise coming away from the windowsill. Cold air rushed in. Makarov pressed his face against the screen. "Kitty?"

Laxus reaffirmed his hold on his elbow. "There is nothing out there. Close it."

"Kitty! Kitty!"

Makarov was thin and light, removing him from the window was easy. Making him stay away was something else entirely Laxus slammed the window down, locked it, and put himself in the way. "Out."

"No."

Laxus had to catch him by the arm again and turn him back around. "Out."

"No." Makarov struggled. Laxus got mad.

"Stop it. Stop. _Stop_!"

Makarov got madder.

Laxus was able to catch Makarov's weak swing and kept hold on his arm so he could turn him around and march him out of the room. Makarov stopped protesting two steps in; he looked aware of what had just happened and was shocked by it. Cognizance was a deep hole he vanished in and out of.

Wendy was in the kitchen, leaning against the counter and looking scared. "Are you okay, Grampa?"

"Everything's fine, Wendy, go home." Laxus' raised voice made Makarov's lip wobble. Laxus felt like a villain. A frustrated villain. But a villain.

Wendy spun and gathered her coat, phone, and scarf, then scurried to the front door for her boots. She left the laces undone and slipped out without a goodbye.

"You drive everyone away, son." Makarov almost sounded like himself.

"Enough." Laxus pulled out one of the wicker chairs around the kitchen table and pushed him into it. He folded like a tin man, stiff and rusty in his joints.

Laxus put the kettle on the stove and turned on the burner. He returned again and sat in the chair next to his grandfather. Makarov was sniffling. Laxus felt suddenly worn out; all of his energy was gone. There was a paper towel rack mounted on the wall behind the table. Lifting his arm and ripping off a piece was almost impossible. He felt so heavy, his muscles so useless.

He handed the square over. Makarov didn't take it; Laxus put it in his hand and wrenched out, "Are you alright?"

"Just foolish." Makarov's lip came out further and Laxus thought that meant he was embarrassed. Laxus was about to embarrass him more, unfortunately.

"Listen, Gramps, I don't want to be mean but there are things you can't do anymore. Opening the window when it's minus ten out is one of them. What were you even doing?"

"I don't know," he said morosely. "Something. Something important, I think."

Trying to get himself frostbite.

"There isn't anything for you outside. Everything you need, you have right here, and if it's not, just ask. I'll go out or Porlyusica or Wendy will. Right?"

Makarov exhaled and sunk into his chair.

Laxus sat back, too, and drummed his fingers on the table, trying to think of his next course of action. Makarov wouldn't do well in a home, and to be honest, Laxus would feel guilty putting him there. He needed to be by his friends and family. _Locks on the windows and doors?_ Senior _-proof locks_? It was the only way Laxus could see out of this mess. But not even really out of; it'd prolong the time they could stay in the mire of Alzheimer's.

The kettle shrieked. Laxus made tea. He gave one to his grandfather, that he ignored, and drank his own, scalding his tongue. He didn't like the stuff, usually, but his grandfather did and he didn't want him to feel like he was alone. Maybe it was stupid. He didn't know.

"Come on," Laxus said eventually when he was finished and Makarov still hadn't moved. "Let's go watch some TV." Laxus had to pull his chair out and rest his hand on his rickety spine to get him to move.

CSI Miami was on. Laxus left the channel there because together, they liked to pick apart everything the cops were doing wrong. Makarov wasn't taking the same joy out of it, though. His expression was back to being cloudy as he watched the cops move through and botch an investigation. He kept hissing and grunting, too. Laxus knew better, but he asked,

"What's wrong, Gramps?" The question sounded nasally through his broken nose and completely hopeless, even to Laxus' ears.

"You got into trouble, didn't you? At work?"

If he wasn't ashamed before, he certainly was then. "It's not a big deal."

Makarov looked at him hard. His lips disappeared between his teeth as he tussled with something major, his thoughts and his words. It was obvious what he was thinking. His eyes kept flitting to the second family photo over the TV, to Ivan. That was pulled out of storage for the funeral and never quite went away.

The wrong gear engaged and Makarov's brain made his mouth say ridiculous things. "I'm always bailing you out of trouble."

"No one's in trouble, Gramps."

"If you think that then you're an even bigger fool than I thought. This is the last secret. No more, Ivan. I won't do it anymore."

There were some family secrets people didn't ask about. Laxus found whenever his father was involved, he never wanted to know. He let it lay and propped his elbow on the arm of the couch, settling in for the long haul. His grandfather didn't need input from him to blather, he did well on his own with no prompting. Laxus watched the TV without seeing. Sometimes, Makarov said awful things, and Laxus quickly learned how to listen without hearing, too.

His perseverance paid off, and ultimately, as the hours bled by and CSI ended for House, the old man talked himself to sleep with no further engagement from him.

With light snores in the air, Laxus was all too happy to rise and sneak out into the garage. His Plymouth didn't forget stuff or get mixed up, and when she did, he could just fix her.

The smell of grease and oil wrapped around him and he felt immediately better. It was cold out there. He cracked the garage door and ignited the gas heater he had attached to a small propane tank. It was almost immediately warmer.

The Plymouth needed its carburetor cleaned. It wasn't something that would take him forever, so chances were, his fingers wouldn't have time to go numb, but it would take long enough that he'd have an epiphany and outfox Major Crimes or he'd feel tired enough to sleep.

The car door was unlocked because there wasn't anything in there to steal and the garage was usually locked, too. Laxus put on his favourite classic rock station and turned the music down to a level that wouldn't disturb his grandfather inside. Deep Purple's _Smoke on the Water_ further helped in taking his mind off things. Laxus popped the hood, rolled up his sleeves, and started sorting through his tools, looking for the right socket.

The stepping guitar cut out and _These Days_ by Rudimental took its place. Laxus brought in a steadying breath before he turned and narrowed in on Mira sitting in the backseat of the Plymouth with his emergency blanket pulled over the clothes she left Purgatory in. Just a small dress, a pair of moccasins on her feet. Feet that she had up on the centre console, twitching in a way that was supposed to, Laxus supposed, look cute. It did, but he loved that car.

His grandfather's nonsense made a little more sense now. Kitty was what Wendy's friend Carla insisted she be called. Her hair, too, was so blonde it was nearly white. Gramps was mixing up his people again.

"How long have you been in here for?"

"A couple of hours."

"You couldn't have come in through the front door?"

"I tried," she admitted sheepishly. She opened the car door and stood and cool rage poured through Laxus. Someone had hurt her. Her dress was ripped and there was a bruise on her chin. "I was talking to your grandfather and then I saw the girl behind him and then the reality of what I was doing kinda sunk in. I didn't want them to get into trouble."

Laxus barely heard her words. "What happened to you?"

Mira looked down and swiped her hand over her dress as if she'd forgotten. "An enforcer I didn't recognize caught up to me after I left here. A guy was driving by, though, and stopped for me before things could get really bad."

Really bad? She was hurt. Someone had hit her. Laxus touched her chin gently. Mira met his eye unflinchingly. If it hurt, she didn't betray herself. "And this? Was that the same enforcer or Gildarts?"

Mira's smile was small and bittersweet. "Gildarts wouldn't have hurt me, I don't think."

"Mira." He broke Jellal's wrist and shot two people dead to get at her.

"If you'd seen the way he shot Erza's enforcers, you'd know that when my turn came, he wasn't trying all that hard," she insisted. "Trust me."

"He didn't want to kill you enough that he let himself get arrested for it?"

She lifted her shoulder.

There were more important things to think about than Gildarts. "What did this guy look like that caught up with you?"

"Freakishly tall," Mira said. "Short hair. Scruff. Dead eyes. He had a tattoo here." She tapped her forehead. Tattoos were good. The unique ones sold out perps all the time.

"Of what?"

"A skull." She curled her nose.

Laxus dug through his memory of Magnolia's thugs and found a match. "That sounds like Jacob Lessio."

Mira's eyes squinted as she, too, went through her memory. "That name sounds familiar. I think Erza told me he was the one that replaced Elfman," Mira said. "He works for Zeref."

"I guess we don't need to wonder if Eileen and Zeref are still friends," Laxus muttered. He ran his fingers over her jaw again. There was a hard lump in the centre of the bruise and there was purple and blue bleeding into the white of her skin. It made him feel gross.

"I'm sorry for coming back here but after that happened, I didn't know where else to go," Mira said, distracting him. "Your grandfather left the garage door open for me, though, and lured me in with a pop tart in the backseat of your car." Her smile was as thin and pale as winter's sunlight.

"And you were just waiting out here while people hunted you down because you pissed off Eileen?"

"Yeah. I guess."

"Jesus Fuck."

"I think that's blasphemy."

"You work in a brothel that was once a church," Laxus reminded her.

"Point taken."

He leaned back against his tool cabinet while he thought. "I'm glad you came here but I think Eileen's going to come to the same conclusion. We need to get you to the station where its safe."

"I can't go there. Eileen will get me there."

"You'll be in a cop shop, Mira. You'll be fine."

She looked uncertain.

"I'll be with you," Laxus pressed again.

She shook her head vigorously. "I need to find my sister before _Tante_ Eileen thinks it's a good idea to use her to hurt me, and then I need to get out of Magnolia."

He got why she was scared. Lisanna was the only family she had left, but running wasn't the answer. "Lisanna needs help," Laxus said as gently as possible. "She needs doctors, Mira. She needs a stable place to live. She doesn't need to be on the lam. That's not going to be good for her and it's not going to be good for you." She looked properly scolded. Laxus went in for the kill. "Let me drive you to the station and we'll figure out where she is together."

Mira wouldn't so easily lie down dead, though. "And then what? She goes back to that terrible asylum?"

"We can look into other options." But likely.

She wrung her hands together. "I can't, Laxus. I can't. I can't do that to her. I need to be with her and we need to get out of here."

"If you leave, you'll be leaving me, too," he bid.

"Don't say stuff like that."

"The truth? If you leave and you take your sister out of here, you're running from me, too, and we can't get back to this place." It could have been selfish, but he didn't want that. He wanted her there. He wanted to take her to bed every night and he wanted to wake up and kiss her goodbye. He wanted her to look at him sadly as he put on his tie and he wanted her to tighten it for him too much. He wanted her to need him and he wanted to need her, every fucked up corner of her. Every dark nook.

"She doesn't belong in that place, Laxus."

Laxus grabbed her shoulders and held her so hard, he was afraid of leaving marks. "She needs help, Mira. People that need the kind of help Lisanna does _stay in institutions_."

Her eyes got watery. "Even if she wasn't the killer? If she didn't pull the trigger on the gun that killed Superintendent Torres?"

"She _confessed_."

Mira gripped him back; her fingers did leave marks on his forearms. "What if she lied?"

"We'd need evidence to say otherwise and honestly, Mira, we have all the evidence we need to keep her locked up for a long time." The gun had her prints all over it, Lisanna knew the location of the locker where she'd stored the evidence, she described the murder in detail. She even had motive. And she was insane.

Mira said desperately, "What if I told you she was bribed into taking the fall? What if it was _my_ idea to kill Superintendent Torres after what he did to Elfman? What if Zeref promised me a fall person and then chose my sister all because he _hated_ me and this was the worst way he could hurt me?"

"Shut up, Mira."

"No. I want you to listen to me. I want you to arrest me. I killed him. I got a gun from Zeref and I went to the hospital and I shot him for killing Elfman. I didn't even feel bad. See? It's not Lisanna that's crazy, it's me. Arrest me instead." She put her hands together and held them out like he was going to do exactly that. Laxus shoved them down.

"Stop it."

"No—"

"Anything you're saying now is said under duress. No court will accept your confession and take you in Lisanna's stead. She's had a hundred psych evaluations done and each one comes up fucking lu-lu," he snapped.

"Laxus—"

He was afraid that this was the end of his rope. He had no more to spool out to deal with the crazy fucking people in his life. " _Stop_ it."

Fat tears leaked out of her eyes. Laxus diligently swiped them away. She tried to swat his hands. A short struggle ensued. Mira didn't seem to have much strength to fight, though, and eventually just let him pin her to the car with his weight while he used his fingertips to gather up her tears. Her glower, though, that was skin-peeling.

"I hate you."

"That's okay."

"It's not."

But both of them knew otherwise. "I want to keep talking about Lisanna."

"I _don't._ "

Laxus ignored her. "I know it doesn't seem like it, but she'll be better off in the institution. Out here, she just attracts people like Kagura, strong-willed and violent."

"Natsu would take care of her."

"Strong-willed, violent Natsu."

"He'd never hurt her."

"No, but he wouldn't hesitate to hurt anyone that threatened her, and something like that could be the catalyst that caused a cascade. She could hurt herself. She could hurt others. And if that were to happen, do you think he'd turn her in?"

"He loves her," Mira said hollowly.

" _Exactly_. He'd spend his entire life cleaning up any mess Lisanna made and hiding her mistakes." Love really brought out the worst in people. "Right now, he can't see that the asylum's the safe place for her. He's too close to this. It's _your_ job to convince him otherwise. You need to be as impartial as you can be, for Lisanna's sake. She needs you to be."

Mira's lip wobbled more and more tears flowed. Her lungs heaved and stilled. Laxus pulled her in and let her cry it out. He was a big hypocrite. If he practiced what he preached, he'd bring his grandfather into a home. To be fair, he argued with himself, the only thing Gramps was a menace of was himself. Lisanna had hurt others, too.

Mira pulled away from him suddenly and growled, frustrated. "I can't even believe I'm considering this."

"It's the right choice."

She rubbed her cheeks roughly and started to pace. " _God_." She stopped as suddenly as she'd started and gasped in a noisy breath. "Okay."

"Yeah?"

"Yes. I need to call Natsu. Lisanna will go to him first." Her tone said _likely._

Laxus produced his phone. Mira's fingers were shaking so badly when she took it, she nearly dropped it, and then she had to type in and erase the number twice before she got it right. Eventually, it rang. She started pacing again, phone pressed to her ear. Laxus watched her; she looked like a caged lynx, back and forth, back and forth over the concrete floor. Her moccasins were silent and left wet stains; water had soaked into the sides. Her feet must have been freezing.

The phone went to voicemail. "We should go to the hospital," Mira said. "Talk to him there."

"We should go to the station. When you're safe, I'll check it out."

"Natsu isn't going to listen to you."

"And you have a big red target on your back." Mira had been knocked around and pushed and Laxus really wasn't being his nicest self. He was worried, though, and she wasn't making it any easier with her crazy cavalier ideas.

Mira's lip disappeared. "I don't care."

"Well, _I_ do."

She blew the bangs off her forehead and started pacing again, eyes glued to the number pad on Laxus' phone, brain working overtime. "He gave me another number. I just…"

Laxus let her work through it. Her fingers swiped over the numbers, erased, and back over again. She was reasonably satisfied and held the phone to her ear. This time, it rang twice before it was picked up on the other end. Laxus could hear Natsu's voice come through, strained. He said _'Lisanna?'_ immediately. Mira's expression only got tighter.

"It's Mira." She walked to the mouth of the garage and spoke lowly. Laxus sat on the stairs to give her some privacy. He only caught bits and pieces of what she said when her voice got taut and louder. He didn't _need_ to hear. Natsu didn't like what she was saying, not one bit.

Mira sighed loudly and returned. Her cheeks were red; her hands were still shaking. "He hung up on me and keeps passing on my return calls."

Laxus stood and pushed back a lock of her hair. It was cold, like water moving through his fingers, though knotty. "We'll call it in and get some people tailing Natsu. If he leaves the hospital, we'll follow him and as soon as he makes contact with Lisanna, we'll get her."

She pinched her eyes closed. "I don't want a huge, loud scene. I don't want twenty cops to surround her and manhandle her."

"It won't be like that." Here he was, making promises he had no control over. Mira looked like she needed to hear them, though, and Laxus needed to tell them. He honestly didn't remember being so manipulative. Maybe he really _was_ becoming more like his father with every day that passed. His grandfather wasn't just losing his mind; he was seeing something that Laxus couldn't.

He tucked all of that away for later examination. "Lisanna will be fine. I swear." He kissed Mira. Her lips were cold, too, devoid of lip gloss and lipstick, and the kiss was dead on her end. Laxus was discouraged. Mira was a game of roulette. Who knew what she was going to do next? Laxus tried to steer her in the right direction. "Come inside and get changed, there's a pair of pants and a shirt you forgot here a while ago."

Both of them knew they were left there on purpose but Mira didn't correct him. _I love you_ meant something different when you were leaving behind clothes at the person's house.

To Laxus' relief, she walked stiltedly up the steps and into the house on his behest. Gramps was still sleeping on the couch, his snores light and breezy. Laxus slowed up on the way by to throw the wool blanket over his body from the back of the couch. He still didn't wake.

Mira tiptoed into his room while Laxus scrawled a note and left it on the coffee table within easy reaching distance. Hopefully, if Makarov woke, he'd see that and not immediately panic.

By the time Laxus made it into his room, Mira's Purgatory wear was stripped and thrown on the ground and she was pulling her shirt on over her bra. He tried to look at her; instead, his attention was hauled off by the little shining bit of black outside the window that just didn't look right.

He didn't spend too much time wondering if he was seeing things correctly or if he was overreacting. He launched for Mira and tackled her to the ground. Glass burst and sprinkled down around them and a bullet slammed into the opposite wall.

Mira was frozen beneath him, as stiff as a corpse. Laxus tried to ask if she was alright. Her would-be-assassin decided to make sure his work was done, though, and appeared at the window. Laxus rolled with Mira and got the bed between them. It wasn't much cover.

Bullets rained in and destroyed most of his favourite things, pictures, his laptop, a medal or two. There came a break. Laxus figured that he had to change his clip and stole the moment, lifting up and tackling him to the ground, where he could pin him there with his weight. The man bucked viciously and attacked. It was hard to focus when punches were being thrown but Laxus vaguely saw the tattoo on the man's forehead and deduced it was Jacob.

Laxus narrowly avoided having his broken nose re-mashed. He hit Jacob's head against the floor and was punched in the side twice. Jacob didn't hit like Elfman did, but he was still strong and Laxus was still breathless.

Limbs were everywhere. Jacob was fast and brutal. He reached over his head and grabbed one of Laxus' weights off the floor and hit him in the shoulders and ribs with it. Laxus let up his guard, momentarily frozen, and lost his advantage. Jacob got his freakishly long and flexible leg up, around Laxus' throat, and forced him back to the ground while he sat up. Laxus grabbed his legs to pull him back down and had his throat punched at. His windpipe would have buckled if he didn't lift his arm and deflect it last-second.

The bedroom door squeaked open. Jacob stopped trying to kill Laxus so viciously so he could assess the new threat. Makarov looked unkempt in his wrinkled clothes and with his messy, balding head of wispy white hair. Near deranged. There was a gun in his hand. Laxus didn't even _know_ he kept a gun in the house. He had steady hands lifting the weapon and aiming it at Jacob.

Laxus didn't know what he expected to happen. He was surprised, though, when Makarov pulled the trigger and an actual bullet came out. It sank into Jacob's chest and he was knocked on his ass, half on, half off Laxus. He still writhed; Laxus assumed that was in pain, but he was mistaken. Jacob produced another gun that he aimed. Laxus hit him hard in the chest so that when he fired, it went wild, sinking into the wall beside Makarov's head instead of between his eyes.

Mira appeared, swinging another one of Laxus' weights, and hit Jacob in the back of the head. She reeled back and hit him again and this time, blood came out, drenching Jacob's shirt and Laxus' floor. Jacob's muscles went slack and he sank down.

Laxus pushed him off and got up. "Is everyone alright?"

"I'm okay," Mira said.

"Gramps?" Makarov leaned against the wall and panted. Laxus approached him. "Gramps?"

Makarov turned glassy eyes on him. "That was _thrilling_."

Laxus didn't know whether to laugh or to scold. He settled for rolling his eyes. He crouched to strip Jacob of his weapons and noticed he was in a bulletproof vest that kept him from Makarov's shot; the head injury would keep him down. Laxus found two more guns that he put on his person and three knives of various sizes; a piano wire, too, that Laxus used to lash his hands together. He stood when he was through. "I have to check the perimeter. Give Mira the gun, Gramps."

"It's my gun," Makarov protested.

"Gramps—"

"It's okay, Laxus, Mister Dreyar can keep it," Mira said. "He's a better shot anyway."

He was also crazy as fuck. He looked _right_ , though, just then. _With_ it. The action had jogged his mind into a sensible place and Laxus _recognized_ the man looking at him from beneath bushy grey brows. To take the gun would destroy any confidence Makarov had in himself. To not take it was irresponsible. Laxus was through making mistakes.

"Sorry, Gramps." He pried it from the old man's hands and put it in Mira's. Makarov's face crumpled; Laxus chose not to look at the sheer disappointment and despondence. "Call this in on Mira's phone. Mira, keep your eye on the window. If anyone you don't recognize approaches, shoot them." He tapped his chest to indicate where.

Mira looked just as sad as Makarov did but she nodded.

Laxus cleared the house first, half listening to his grandfather on the phone. He didn't want to be outside looking for a killer only to realize that they'd already snuck in.

Everything was as it should have been.

He went out the garage and checked that, too. Inside his Plymouth, where Mira had been hiding, and all around in the corners behind piles of junk he said he was going to tidy but just hadn't had the chance to yet.

Clear.

Outside, the sun had set again, making the details of the lawn difficult to discern. Laxus looked for footprints and found one set in the snow leading around the side of the house. He searched all around, though, and upon the roof, and on the roofs of his neighbours. He checked in the backyard, the shed where they kept gardening things, and on the porch. Everything seemed fine.

There were sirens crying in the distance, fast approaching. Laxus texted Jellal before entering his house, asking, _Alright?_

Jellal's response wasn't actually all that slow in coming, but watching the three little dots rise and fall like a skipping rope while his partner struggled to type with his wrong hand was fucking frustrating. Laxus was about to call instead when he heard Mira's high-pitched voice yelling his name in a way he hadn't heard her say it before. Something was wrong.

He had to go back around to the front because the sliding glass door at the back was still locked and by the time he got there, Mira had substituted his name for a word repeated, "Nonononono. Mister Dreyar? Mister Dreyar, please!"

Laxus' wet boots slid on the shiny wooden floor and almost sent him careening into the wall. He shoved off and landed against his own door ungracefully. His mind was cueing up a ton of terrible things upon entry, either Gramps had tried to take his gun back and shot either himself or Mira or another assassin had come in while Laxus was fucking with his phone and shot Gramps first and was then going for Mira or Gramps was having another episode.

He wasn't prepared for the truth of it when he walked in and saw his grandfather on the ground, clutching the heart that hadn't been very good to him the last few years. He sucked in air like a fish sucked in water, and then he stopped.

* * *

It was easier to focus on work than his real-life woes, even if he was suspended from that work. It'd always been that way. Laxus ditched a wet-eyed Mira in the room where they were slowly taking the IVs out of Makarov's shrivelled arms and, bypassing uniformed and armed officers that hung outside the door, hunted for the stairs.

The elevator doors came open and Jellal stepped out. He'd put his jacket on over one arm, it seemed too much effort to shove his cast through the other hole, and his eyes were clear of the pain medication.

"Laxus—"

"The nurses said Natsu was moved into a new room," Laxus said briskly. "Mira thinks Lisanna will contact him first before anything. They were supposed to run away together."

Jellal's shoulders slumped as he discerned the truth for himself, and he fell into step beside Laxus without asking any stupid questions like, _what happened_? Laxus wouldn't have to give him any stupid answers like, _It wasn't a fucking bullet or anything fucking heroic. It was his goddamn heart._ Too much excitement for his pre-existing condition, the doctor said. It was a _delayed response_.

He shoved open the door but didn't feel an ounce better when it hit the wall loudly and all eyes turned his way.

Natsu's door was closed and the lights were out. Was it so late? Laxus pushed that door open with the same amount of authority. It bounced back on him. It had hit something that lay on the floor.

_Someone_ , he corrected when Jellal flipped on the lights. Two someones. Natsu's guards, Zeref's men, were down, and Natsu's bed was empty. Jellal checked their pulses while Laxus cursed.

"They're alive."

"Oh, good fucking thing. Where the hell is _Natsu_ , though?" How did a man with tape holding his head together sneak _out_ of a hospital _crawling_ with police? Unless, of course, some police decided that they didn't see him leaving. "Fuck."

Either he was out searching for Lisanna or he'd found her. There was no way to know for sure.


	23. Chapter 23

**_ XXIII: Lisanna _ **

Lisanna licked chapped lips and tasted the residual of Kagura's lip gloss and the copper of blood. It was an odd mix of flavours that she didn't immediately hate, but as the seconds ticked by and she came more awake, she was aware of a headache that made her nauseous. Suddenly, _any_ sensory strain was too much. She wiped the back of her hand over her mouth only to discover that that, too, tasted like copper. And her fingernails hurt.

And why? She scoured her mind. _I was painting_. Yes. She'd run out of crayons. Mira didn't like it when she used other medians but Mira wasn't there and there was stuff in her brain that she just needed to get _out_.

She couldn't remember what she'd scrawled on the walls. She remembered being proud of it, though.

Shoes popped over concrete and someone with soft hands picked her's up by the wrist and swiped something cool and wet over her fingernails. It stung. Lisanna opened her eyes at the pain. Kagura crouched in front of her with some cotton swabs and a bottle of rubbing alcohol in her hand. She worked methodically, head down, swiping off the blood and then sterilizing the nails that were broken past the quick or missing.

"Forget about that." That waspish voice belonged to... _Kyouka_ , Lisanna remembered. _Her name is Kyouka._ And she leaned over a man that lay prone on the floor not five feet away. Lisanna could only see his torso and his feet, Kyouka blocked the rest of him with her body. "She's just torn her nails. _He's_ bleeding out. We might still need him."

Kyouka's words rolled over Kagura. "They'll get infected."

"She'll live."

"She won't be able to touch me, though."

"I think you can survive."

Kagura muttered, "No." Kyouka may not have believed her, but Lisanna did. Kagura liked her attention from her doll. "Besides, what else do we need him for? He got us out, he got us here."

Kyouka didn't respond.

Kagura pressed too hard on one nail and Lisanna yanked her hand away. Kagura's eyes lifted and her mouth split into a smile. "Hi, Lisanna."

Lisanna struggled against Kagura trying to bring her hand back beneath the cotton swab. "That hurts."

Kagura was strong. "Yeah, but it'll make you better."

Lisanna gave up. Sometimes, it was useless to fight her. "Where are we?" A basement, maybe, with all of the metal supporting pillars and concrete floors, but it was nowhere she recognized.

"We're in Freed's house," Kagura said. "Bickslow told us about it. We can't stay here long but—"

Whatever she finished saying made no effect on Lisanna, she got snagged on _Bickslow_ and her mind didn't just wander off, as it did when she was off her medication, it _raced_. She closed her eyes and saw a mouth open, a tattooed tongue slithering out to tell her to _hang on._ Her thighs remembered the feeling of his body between hers and her hands remembered being locked around his neck. He liked to be pushed to the point of blacking out. He liked crazy laughter and dark. He _loved_ the dark.

"Lisanna?" Kagura prodded.

Lisanna opened her eyes and the tingly feeling low in her belly quieted for more pressing and sane things. "Why are we here? Why does my head hurt? And…"

"Here we go." Kyouka flicked a lighter and lit a cigarette with the glowing orange flame.

Lisanna stared at the fire. A tumbler fell in her head. _And where's Natsu?_

"We had to leave our safe house," Kagura explained. "Remember?"

She _tried._ "Everything's fuzzy."

"That's okay." Kagura pet her like a dog, nails sliding through her knotty hair. Her head hurt worse when she did that. She turned her head to try to mitigate some of the pain. Kagura asked, "Do you remember going out with me? When we went to the old fairgrounds?"

And climbed to the topmost basket of a rickety Ferris wheel. "With Bickslow."

"Yeah. And then he got that call. Remember?"

She _did_ remember his phone chattering in his pocket. Insane laughter that dug into her bones and made her feel untethered, too. Lisanna nodded.

"We went back to the house."

"And… there was something wrong," Lisanna added. "Someone had been in our safe house. They left drugs."

"I told you, you shouldn't have left," Kyouka muttered.

"We needed to have _fun_ ," Kagura snapped. "It isn't fair that Seilah is the only one allowed out."

"She was the only one of us that wouldn't be recognized," Kyouka whipped back. "Because you were so careless, someone came into our house and planted evidence!"

" _Did_ they?" Kagura threw back at her.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Everyone was accounted for except for you."

"Me? You think I did this?"

"You're the traitor, _Tante_ Kyouka," Kagura sneered.

"Fuck off."

Kagura was like a dog sensing fear. She latched onto Kyouka's snappiness and wouldn't let go. "Let's not forget, you've given up our location before to that whore. You probably waited until we left and then told Seilah to drop the evidence. Now what? Is she waiting for you? You'll stick us with the blame and you'll get off scott-free?"

"You're being stupid. I didn't tell _anyone_ where we were."

"Juvia—"

"I told Juvia _Huntsman_. I didn't give her an address."

"Big fucking difference—"

Their squabbling was making Lisanna's head pound _more_. She took her hand away from Kagura's and this time, she didn't notice. She didn't even notice Lisanna stand and stumble over to Bickslow. Neither one of them did.

She dropped to her knees behind Kyouka and touched Bickslow's stubbly face. He was the same colour pale as moonstone, bluey-white. Lisanna had seen it before. She pressed her hand to his chest to make sure that he was dying and not dead. Yes. His heart fluttered; his breath shortened against the pain of her poking around in his wound. Lisanna stopped prodding and instead slid her fingers through the blood. It was slick and not as warm as it should have been.

"I think he needs help."

Kagura stopped arguing with Kyouka for a moment and seemed startled to realize that Lisanna wasn't where she left her. "Get away from him."

"But I think he needs help," Lisanna repeated. He helped them after all.

Kagura stood and wiped dirt off her behind. "Let someone else do it. We're leaving."

"Leaving?"

"Sure, when the going gets tough, you step out," Kyouka jabbed.

"When we found you on the street, you promised this would be an equal partnership. That's never been the case and this isn't worth it."

_Partnership_. Something niggled in the back of Lisanna's mind.

"Bullshit. You needed more help than I did. Every cop in the city was looking for you."

"We were handling it."

"Until _she_ fucked it all up!" Kyouka pointed at Lisanna accusingly. "If you had just listened to me when I told you to get rid of her, we wouldn't be in this mess."

"Lisanna knows she made a mistake, don't you, Lisanna?" Kagura asked. "And she won't be making it again."

_Mistake. Mistake_. Lisanna looked to a panting Bickslow and touched his temple gingerly. There was something— _red_ in her head that was trying to crawl out. Something. _Mistake. Mistake_. She'd made a mistake. She'd—

A ringtone jangled from somewhere in the basement. Kyouka fished a phone out of Bickslow's pocket, checked the caller ID and then answered it. She spoke low and fast; Lisanna would have had a hard time hearing even if she tried to listen; her brain was making connections.

_You made a mistake._

_You…_

_You_

_called Natsu._

_You_ called _Natsu._

And Natsu had found her. Natsu had knocked on the door on Huntsman and she'd opened it up and her heart had swelled so much, she wasn't afraid of the planted drugs, she'd forgotten she was supposed to be packing but was instead drawing, she'd forgotten everything and kissed him. He'd put his arms around her centre, put his mouth against her ear and told her, 'We're leaving, Lisanna. We're getting out of here. Everything's going to be fine now.'

And then…

She turned her head and found Kyouka speaking on the phone and Kagura getting some of their belongings together. Her hands were still red stained.

"You hurt Natsu."

She barely flinched. "To keep us safe."

"You hurt him."

"I had to, Lisanna," Kagura said clinically. "He was going to take you away from me."

"We have another safe house lined up. We have to go," Kyouka announced. Neither Lisanna nor Kagura heard her.

"We were supposed to go together. All of us. Me, you and Natsu. And—and Mira. We were going to get Mira and we were all going to go together."

"Mira's fucking the police and Natsu didn't _want_ to go together."

"Yes, he _did_ —"

"No. He wanted you all to himself. He wanted to take you away from me."

"Are we really doing this right now, ladies?" Kyouka interrupted.

Lisanna held out her hand in a hush fashion. "Is he dead?"

"Who cares?" Kagura said.

" _I_ care. _Is he dead_!" Lisanna's lungs felt bottomless, she could be as loud and as vicious as she wanted; nothing could stop her. Certainly not physicality.

Kyouka swore and started gathering her things.

"Probably," Kagura said over Kyouka's bustling; there was an edge of mean to her voice.

Lisanna felt tears press against her eyes. "You shouldn't have done that. You shouldn't have hurt him."

"Once you realize you're free of him now, everything will be better." Kagura crossed the room to be by her side. Lisanna pushed her hard when she tried to hug her.

"Don't."

Kagura scolded, "Lisanna. There wasn't another way. You couldn't leave—you belong with me. We're going to make changes in Magnolia, remember? And to do that, it has to be just me and you. Your sister won't understand and Natsu only shared because you told him to."

"You don't _know_ that."

"Yes, I do. One day, he was going to look at you and say, _let's go, Lisanna_ , and you would have left because you do everything he wants you to, always."

Lisanna's mind was in a loop, repeating in denial. "You shouldn't. You shouldn't have done that. You shouldn't."

Kagura grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "I saved you."

There was a monster in her bones. It fought its way up like a rising tide and made her head empty. She imagined she was an animal raking her stubby and in some cases already broken nails down Kagura's face, and she wasn't sad for it. Kagura yelled and clutched her eye. Blood came from between her fingers. Then she retaliated.

Lisanna's mind shut off after Kagura hit her on the cheek and time slowed. There were arms and legs and teeth and nails. Lisanna felt none of it, more than willing to sacrifice herself to get a good hit in.

Kagura was vicious but she wasn't mindless like Lisanna was. Her next punch was calculated and Lisanna saw stars. She fell into a pile of junk with labeled boxes and something elongate and round dug into her back.

It was a familiar shape.

Lisanna rolled off the old baseball batt. It was metal and spotted with water stains.

It was perfect.

She thought of Elfman when she hefted it and stood. She thought of bad people doing bad things. She thought _no more,_ and then she swung. Words streamed out of her mouth but she didn't know what she said. When she was through, though, she dropped the batt on Kagura's bloody form and stomped out of the basement. Kyouka had hung up the phone and didn't try to stop her.

* * *

People were oblivious. They walked down the street with their eyes turned to the ground or toward their cellphones and didn't notice her. Or if they did, they quickly adverted their attention. No one wanted to ask _what's wrong_ to the girl dotted in blood, wearing only a sweater and a pair of tights and sandals when it was so damn cold out. No one wanted to get involved.

She tracked someone down, though, and involved them anyway, a man wearing a toque and a big woolly parka. When she asked him for a dollar, he looked like he wanted to run. Then she saw the civil war he went through. Give her a dollar or run on his way? He had a guilty conscience and coughed up the dollar, careful when he put it in her palm not to touch her.

Lisanna rolled her pilfered money around in her palms for an entire block before she saw a payphone beside a bar. She stepped into the filthy plastic booth and stared at the receiver, trying to think of Natsu's number. It wasn't until she lifted her hand that muscle memory took over; her fingers knew when her aching head didn't. They flew over the numbers with practiced ease. She crushed the receiver to her ear and listened to the metallic ring.

_Ring. Ring. Ring._

What would she say if Zeref picked up?

She didn't know if she could say _anything_ at all.

_Ring. Ring. Ring._

A black Lincoln drove by and splashed the phone booth with water. The breaks feathered like the person was going to stop. At the last minute, they sped up and gunned it around the corner.

_Ring. Ring. Ring._

Lisanna clutched the diamonds around her throat.

_Ring. Ring. Ring._

She always dragged around sorrow and misfortune. But some people were just like that, she supposed.

_Ring. Ring. Ring._

Everything she touched got twisted and rotted.

She started drawing on the inside of the phone booth with the tips of her fingers. They stung. She liked it.

"Lisanna?"

She drew a valentine heart.

"Are you there?"

And made it bleed.

"Lisanna? Is that you?"

She made it ugly, too, its edges crooked. The frost on the window made it look like it was mouldering.

" _Answer me."_

Lisanna jolted, coming out of her painting. "Hello?"

"Lisanna."

Someone was speaking on the other end of the phone. Not just someone but, "Natsu?" Sometimes, it was hard to tell illusion from reality.

He demanded, "Where are you? I'm coming to get you."

Her illusions were never so forceful, though. She decided that he must have been real. Her heart skipped beat twice, once for relief and once for elation. "In a payphone."

"Where?"

"I—don't know." The city had changed a lot since she'd last been out in it.

Natsu brought in an impatient breath. "Look around you. What do you see?"

She squinted to read the sign over her head. "Pottem's Bar and Grill."

Natsu got quiet. "On the East End. The payphone out front?"

"I guess."

" _Lisanna_." His voice wavered.

"Yes. Yes. The payphone out front." He was scared and suddenly, she was, too, because Natsu didn't _get_ scared.

"Go behind the building and don't let anyone see you."

"But—"

"Go." He almost yelled in her ear. Lisanna hung up the phone and pointed her face toward the ground. Snow got into her sandals and made her feet both numb and wet. Wind cut through her. She wished for the telephone booth again but Natsu's _go_ was still resonating in her ear. She trusted him and if he thought behind the building was better, then that's where she'd go.

A police car whipped by, heading in the direction she'd come from, sirens blaring. Lisanna's shoulders tensed. She didn't know how she knew that they were on their way to Freed's basement, but she did.

God. She was going to be arrested for Kagura. And they were going to blame her for Bickslow. And then they were going to say that it was her that soaked mints in poison.

Kagura's manic laughter belled in her mind, accompanied by the sound of the batt hitting flesh. A dull _thunk. Thunk. Thud_.

Laugh. Laugh. Hiccough.

_Thud._

Hiccough.

_Thud._

Hiccough.

_Thud._

God.

Recognizing she had another episode coming on, Lisanna squished her lip hard. Mira was sad when she had episodes.

_Thud._

_Laugh._

_Thud._

_Laugh._

_Th—_

_Oh god. Oh god. Oh god._

A cat jumped off of a garbage can and startled her badly enough that her thoughts stopped their downward spiral. She wasn't anywhere _near_ Kagura. The police didn't know she was here. And Natsu was coming to get her. She was _fine._

And not just fine. _Perfect_.

She just had to… to wash Kagura's blood off her hands. And she had to wait for Natsu. He would make things better. And then they'd call Mira and they'd meet up and everything would be good again.

There was a place behind the bar that smelled like burned oil and pee and beer. Lisanna's immediate instinct was to huddle by the building so winter's bitter wind couldn't cut through her so thoroughly but she knew it would be safer by the trees. She had to hide. She had to not let anyone see her.

There was a pine. And behind the pine was a sea of other pines, a river at the bottom of a shallow valley, and a shopping cart tipped over on its side. Around that, like offerings so some grimy and wicked urban god was a sea of empty plastic bottles, some water, some Gatorade, and a glass bottle that said _Ice_ on the front. Vodka. In amongst those were food wrappers. Candy bars and takeout mostly, though there were a few chip bags that wavered in the growing breeze.

Lisanna crouched by the shopping cart and dunked her hands in the snow. The first layer of blood left a copper stain on the white ground. The rest turned yellow-y orange. Her hands got chapped, and then they started to bleed again. She washed her face with grainy snow, too. It hurt and it felt good. She felt clean. And raw. Wind sliced through her.

More police cars screamed by. Lisanna's heart pulsated.

_Oh god. Oh god. Oh god._

She scrubbed her hands harder.

_Oh god. Oh god. Oh god._

They were going to find Kagura's body and they were going to come for her and they didn't _understand_.

_Oh god. Oh god. Oh god._

God.

She needed to get out.

She—

She heard footsteps around the side of the building and ducked behind the pine. A homeless man came into view, searching the dumpster for something to eat. She must have made a noise because he looked back over his shoulder, saw her, and scrutinized her with a filthy expression.

"This is my turf."

Lisanna wavered, unmoving, unsure of how to approach.

"I said, this is my turf. You don't belong here!" He approached with a snarl; Lisanna knew violence and recognized it here. Her heart did a one-two of excitement and she grabbed the only weapon available to her—the Ice bottle. Its end was already jagged, someone had dropped it with force and the bottom had broken. The sun was just settling under the horizon and the very last of its rays made the glass shine red like bleeding hearts.

The man wasn't at all deterred by Lisanna's weapon. He crouched low like an animal; Lisanna mimicked him. And then he ran at her full-tilt. He hit her and it felt like someone had swung a bag of pointy bones at her. It hurt, but there wasn't much force behind it. She was able to dig her feet in and get down low and from there, she could jam the broken bottle into the man's leg.

Blood burst out and covered the snow even more than before. Lisanna was hit; she didn't feel it; she got the man again, and was winding up for another when someone rounded the corner and interrupted her.

"Lisanna."

The homeless man and his wide, dead fish eyes came back into focus. There was blood splattered on his face and all over the snow and it was on her hands again, too. The man clutched his leg and whimpered.

"Lisanna."

She looked away from her latest victim. Natsu with a bandage around his head was a much better sight. "You came." She disregarded the homeless and bounded across the lot as much as her body would let her. Natsu caught her and she gave him a fierce and short hug. He broke away and pried the bottle from her hands. When it dropped, it shattered. Lisanna was suspicious that it was on purpose. But she was suspicious of everything lately.

Natsu asked, "What happened?"

"He attacked me."

The man behind them hissed something Lisanna missed. Natsu gave him a fleeting look. Something moved across his face too fast for Lisanna to recognize; when he pulled her back to inspect her, though, his face was absent of everything but concern. "Are you okay?"

"I think so."

There were more sirens in the distance. Natsu looked in their direction while he took her bloody and bleeding hands and pulled her towards a car that wasn't his, flat black instead of fire red, an economy car— _Volvo_ the back panels said.

"Who's car is this?"

"I lifted it from the hospital lot."

"You—?"

Natsu held open the passenger's door. "Get in."

It smelled like cigarette smoke and curdled milk. But it was warm and it was comfortable. Lisanna sank into the heated seat and sighed. Natsu climbed into the driver's side and stepped on the gas and the car lurched forward.

"Thank you for coming." She felt _free_.

"I'll always come for you."

Lisanna rested her head against the headrest and watched him rather than the road. She'd seen a hundred in her lifetime; Natsu had been away from her for too long. His mouth was where he carried his stress; despite Lisanna's own jubilation, Natsu's mouth was sagging into a frown. His gaze kept flitting toward her, too. "What is it?"

Natsu grabbed her wrists. "You're getting it everywhere." It was then Lisanna realized she was playing with the blood on her hands, and painting again, on the dashboard this time. "Here." He tossed her a sweater from the back.

Lisanna considered getting angry. In the end, she wiped her hands as much as she could. There came a point, though, where the blood was dry and her hands were just copper stained. She changed the subject to shift the focus from her. "Is your head okay?"

"Fine, Lisanna," Natsu said quickly enough that Lisanna knew he lied. "How did you get out?"

"I know it's bothering you," she said, not intentionally dodging his question but focused.

"I have a headache. I'm okay, though."

"Me, too. My head hurts."

He reached and put his fingers into her hair. "You have a lump. We'll look at it when we stop."

"Okay."

He repeated his question. Natsu was always keeping stuff in his head, unlike her. "How did you get away?"

"I killed Kagura." Lisanna had an urge to show him how but had no tools to proceed with. She settled for wringing her hands. "There was a batt. I used it just like Elfman did until her head was squishy and she stopped talking."

"You did?"

"She shouldn't have hurt you."

His jaw flexed. "She shouldn't have."

Despite his agreement, Lisanna sensed a divide coming between them that hadn't been there before. In an effort to close it, she leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder. He felt _right_ to her. Good. He even smelled good, the residuals of his cologne clinging to his skin. She loved it. "I thought you were dead. I was calling to hear your voice on the answering machine."

Natsu took her forearm and held it loosely. "The police found me."

"Are you in trouble?"

He shook his head. "No."

"Are you going to be?"

"Everything is fine, Lisanna."

Everything was if Natsu said it was. "I need to call Mira. She's probably worried about me."

Natsu bit the inside of his cheek so hard, his cheekbone got sharp.

"What is it?"

"Maybe we should wait to call her."

"Why?"

He opened his mouth; he closed it.

"Natsu?"

"Just, maybe we should wait until we're out of Magnolia."

"We were supposed to take her with us."

He gripped the steering wheel hard. "She could come meet us."

"She doesn't have a car."

"She could take the bus."

"She could. But you don't want her to."

His cheekbone got sharper.

"What's going on? Is there something wrong with her?" Lisanna's voice was getting louder and squeakier by the second. "Did someone hurt her? Did—"

"Hey—hey, it's okay. She's okay," Natsu said soothingly.

"Then why won't you let me talk to her?" She felt like she was on a rollercoaster ride; she was no longer happy, she was no longer angry, now she was sad and scared. Her eyes were so watery; she couldn't see the road.

"I was just being stupid. Here." He reached into the glovebox and pulled out a phone that Lisanna didn't recognize. She assumed it belonged to the car's owner, and the gun behind it belonged to Natsu. Like a spider on a web, her hand was drawn toward the weapon. Natsu looked over, saw what she was doing, and closed the glovebox, taking the gun out of sight.

"Have you hurt anyone with that?"

"No. Call your sister, Lisanna."

"You hurt lots of people for Zeref. Why are you lying?"

"I'm not. It's a new gun," he said briskly. "Do you know Mira's number?"

Off by heart. Lisanna punched it in. The phone only rang once.

"Lisanna?" Mira's voice was surprisingly high and generous but it was a little bit cloggy like she'd been crying. Despite that, Lisanna could hear the sticky lip gloss on her lips as she said her name. "Where are you?"

"I'm with Natsu."

There came an extending silence in which Lisanna could hear Mira's breaths shortening. "He came for you?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Are you okay?"

She thought about Kagura and her blood and her cold trek through Magnolia. All of that stuff was far away now. Like it had happened to someone else. "I'm okay."

"Where's Kagura?"

"She's dead." A red ball of meat on Freed Justine's basement floor.

Lisanna heard Mira swallow. "Okay." What she really wanted to ask was, _did you kill her_? She was afraid, though. Everyone was always afraid.

"It's okay, Mira. She deserved it. She didn't _want_ to run away with Natsu. She didn't _want_ to run away with you. She just wanted me and her always. She didn't like to share. Things are better now." Though she _did_ miss the way Kagura never got scared. When Lisanna's hands were around Bickslow's throat pushing him toward asphyxiation and ecstasy, Kagura didn't tell Lisanna to _slow down_ or _clean her hands_.

"Lisanna?"

No. Not Kagura. She took Lisanna's wrists and helped her apply pressure.

"Lisanna?"

Maybe she'd made a mistake when she'd killed her.

" _Lisanna_."

Lisanna snapped back to reality. The phone's edge was digging into her hand. "Mira?"

"Can you put Natsu on?"

"Why?" Lisanna asked, suspicious again, though she couldn't say _why._

"I need to tell him where to meet me, so we can go away together."

That seemed honest enough. "She wants to talk to you," Lisanna said around the receiver.

Natsu grabbed the phone from her and held it against his head with the hand that wasn't grasping the wheel. "Yeah." Mira started speaking quickly. Lisanna couldn't hear everything that was said; her words were running together. Natsu listened to whatever it was, straight-faced without uttering another word. It went on for minutes before he hung up.

"Is everything alright?"

"Yeah." He drove in absolute silence for a long time, though, and Lisanna pretended not to notice that they circled around the same block three times. She tried talking about fun things to make him feel better. Like about where they were going to live when they left Magnolia. What they were going to do. She wanted to see the flower wall in Crocus. She wanted to ride the train all the way to Clover. She wanted to grow her hair long and teach Natsu to braid it for her. She wanted to swim in the ocean. She wanted to never feel groggy with medication again. She wanted to feel _right._ She wanted to feel like _herself._ She wanted to be better.

After the last, Natsu changed route and took a left at the next set of lights. Lisanna felt brave. "Is Mira alright?"

"She's fine," he said. She didn't believe him entirely; his jaw was too stiff for that. "We're going to see her."

"Then what's wrong?"

He blew out his air. " _Tante_ Eileen's put a hit out on her."

Lisanna stomach flopped. "Why?"

"Because she doesn't like her?"

"Who wouldn't like Mira? She's sweet and kind and tries to do the right thing for the people she loves. She wants to be a police officer," Lisanna said. "Mira's good."

"She does try to do what's right, doesn't she?"

"Always."

The next turn he made was a right, into the oldest section of town. He stopped the car in the space between an art gallery and a school, on a footpath that was shovelled just wide enough to accommodate their wheels.

"This is where Mira's going to be?"

Natsu leaned his head back against his seat and breathed out. "That's what she said to me, yeah."

"I can't wait to see her."

He had no response. There was just the sound of the heater. Lisanna studied Natsu's face. He'd always had nice, thick lashes and the blackest of eyes. They were the spaces between galaxies. Natsu turned in his chair and met her gaze.

"I love you."

She smiled. "Remember when I asked you to marry me?"

"Every day."

His mouth fluttered around a smile; it dimmed. "Remember when I didn't come see you in the hospital?"

Lisanna wanted to shy away from his question but would not. They needed to share everything if they were going to be together. "You were afraid."

"A bit. Mostly, though, I thought I was bad for you," he admitted. "I didn't want to put more stress on you than what you had already."

"That was sweet."

The set to his lips expressed otherwise. "There were other girls."

She knew that. Of course. Or at least, she'd suspected. Why wouldn't he have others? He was lonely when the only thing she could do was slice down her demons. Lisanna tried not to hold it against him. "I had other men, too," she said. "Orderlies. Bickslow. When Freed helped us escape, him, too. And then, of course, there was Kagura. But I only loved you, Natsu, and I know you only loved me, too."

He nodded. "I did. I _do_."

Lisanna smiled and leaned in. "Then it doesn't matter."

Natsu kissed her. Lisanna let her eyes close and memorized the feel of his lips. Warm and sweet-tasting. So what about it left that bitter flavour in her mouth? It was hard to place so Lisanna determined to forget about it.

She put her hand on his cheek and held him close. She loved him. She loved him more than she loved anything, even when his kiss was hesitant and full of unspoken uncertainties. She turned and climbed over the centre console and into his lap. He held her; his body felt right beneath hers. Still strong, hard where it was supposed to be, his hands firm on her but never too forceful. Natsu was sweet and he was careful.

Too careful today. Confessions aside, something still wasn't right. She poured herself into the kiss anyway, not considering that it could be the blood tacky in her hair or on her clothes that made him hesitate, the manic gleam in her eye when he'd found her or the trail of hurt and bodies she was leaving behind.

She tried undoing his shirt. Natsu caught her hands, and when he looked at them, Lisanna saw something surprising on his face. He wasn't just afraid. He was _disturbed_. Disturbed in the way Mira was whenever she'd come to see her in the hospital or in the asylum. She didn't like that look on Natsu's face.

"What's wrong?"

He turned her hands so he could look at her palms, the scars and the new blood; she realized she'd left crescent moons in them again. Natsu's eyes flitted to hers. "Sometimes, you scare me, Lisanna."

"I don't mean to."

"I know."

"Do you still love me?"

"More than I've loved anyone or anything." He was looking beyond her as he said it. Above the idling engine, Lisanna heard the crunch of tires. In the shadows, she saw red, too, and blue.

Lisanna reasoned through everything. "Did Mira call the police?"

"She's worried about you."

"You knew and you let her."

"I'm worried about you, too." He looked sick.

"How could you do this?"

"I don't know." He sounded so forlorn.

"We were supposed to go away together."

"You need help."

"I needed _you_."

"I'm going to be here for you."

Her lip curled. She couldn't help it any more than she could help the ugly thoughts racing through her brain. "That's what you said last time, too."

"It'll be different this time." Natsu squeezed her wrists tightly to keep her from acting out like she wanted to.

"This time I'll stay where I'm supposed to? This time, you and Mira can have your little secrets and not worry about me finding out?" Natsu winced. She'd hurt him. Good. "Did you think I didn't know? I know when my sister is guilty. I know when you're lying. I know, Natsu. I didn't care, though. I just wanted to go away. Take me away."

"I can't, Lisanna, the police are here." Almost to the door.

"Just step on the gas. Run them down." She said it effortlessly. Then she screamed it when he didn't make a move. She continued to scream it long after the police opened the door and pulled her out. Long after they put cuffs on her wrists and shoved her toward the flashing cruiser. There were cars slowing on the main street to catch a look and Natsu was looking on hollowly from the driver's seat.

Lisanna said terrible things to him. Some she didn't mean and some she did. He took her words stoically.


	24. Chapter 24

**_ XXIV: Juvia _ **

Juvia stayed upstairs on Acnologia's orders when the door was knocked upon. She stayed there until she watched Angel pull out of the driveway and down the street, too, even after she heard the struggle and the gunshots and the wet gurgling noises from the main floor. She was nervous for Acnologia. She was nervous for Angel. She was nervous in general and if she had any fentanyl or coke, she'd suck it right back to calm her nerves so she could descend the stairs and maybe help.

She scoured the room, looking for drugs. There were none immediately visible. Someone choked and she decided that she _couldn't_ stay up there. Nervous or not, she was going to have to go in dry.

Have _to._

Her ankles wobbled on the carpeted stairway. Halfway down, she could smell the blood on the air. It got caught in her throat and she thought she might be sick. She'd never been good with stuff like that. She hardened her resolve and took the rest of the stairs at a half-jog. The living room was a disaster. Stuff was thrown around, there was blood smeared on one of the armchairs. Juvia had her cellphone out well before she hit the landing. Gray wasn't the right one to call, but he was close.

"Mommy?"

Hearing her daughter's voice on the other end of the line threw her off guard. Juvia had a hard time making her voice work.

"Mommy?"

"Who are you talking to, Aria?" Juvia heard a familiar voice ask. Lyon was over, which explained how Aria got hold of Gray's phone without him noticing immediately. Gray had a tendency of getting caught up in their conversations.

"It's Mommy."

"Maybe ask your dad if you can call her later if you want to talk, but you shouldn't play with your dad's phone."

"She called me."

"Can I have it please?"

"No." Her mouth got really close to the receiver and she got really loud. "Hello-ooo-ooo? Mommy?"

And then Gray's voice joined the conversation. "You know you're not supposed to touch that, Aria."

She screeched. "Don't—it's Mommy—"

Gray took the phone out of Aria's hand, Juvia could hear the muffled sound of skin over the mouthpiece as he turned the phone around and looked at the screen. He realized that the phone _was_ on and that she _was_ on the other end. "Juvia?"

Juvia took another step and she saw Acnologia's feet. They were spread out and looked limp. She couldn't get out a breath.

"What's going on?"

There was blood on the floor and blood on the wall, too, just little splatters but her eyes seemed to zero in on those and pick them out.

"Juvia?"

Aria's little voice asked from a distance, "Is there something wrong with Mommy?"

A door slammed as Gray took himself into another room. "Fucking answer me. Are you okay?"

She could just imagine what he thought—she was passed out in another bathroom with a fentanyl patch on her arm or she'd wandered her way into some crack house in the Stacks and stuck a few too many needles in.

" _Juvia_!" he all but yelled her name and the cork came unstoppered.

"I'm here. I'm here."

"Holy fuck. _Where? What's_ going on?"

It didn't take much to make her spill her guts. He listened to her ramble and made sense out of it somehow, and then he commanded that she stay put. That wasn't Juvia's first instinct. He seemed to know it.

"I'm coming with them, Juvia."

"Them?"

"The police, the paramedics. Don't go anywhere, I'm coming for you."

"You'd do that?"

He ignored the question. "What's the address?"

"Um…" She didn't know. "I'm in a cottage."

"I need a street. There are a hundred cottages in Magnolia."

"I'm on the south bay," she thought. "There's a little willow, and I can see the watchtower and… and…" she looked out the window and spotted a massive ship sitting in the bay. "And the Queen's Honor's in port and…" She closed her eyes and pulled up a picture of the street they turned down. "Holly? Hollyberry?"

"Hollyhock," Gray supplied.

"Yes."

She could hear him tapping something into some device she couldn't see. "Paramedics are coming."

With that ringing in her ear, Juvia felt brave enough to really focus on Acnologia's limp form. His shirt was still open part-way and one thick arm was looped around his chest and gripped his ribs. He still looked beautiful, only now he breathed so shallowly and was pale to boot. He was dying and he was going fast. There was blood on his lips and his chest made a gross wheezing noise.

"He's bleeding."

"Try to keep pressure on his wounds," Gray said.

"I might hurt him."

"Just do it."

Juvia swiped a wool blanket from the couch and pressed it to Acnologia's bloody side. He didn't even flinch. "I think it's bad."

Gray was patient. "Just hold on a little longer."

"And you're coming, too?" she confirmed.

"Yes."

"But what about Aria?"

"Lyon's got her." She heard his truck door close. An engine revved and she thought it should have been Gray's but it sounded too close. She took the phone away from her ear and listened more carefully. Snow crunched, compacted under tires, and her suspicions were confirmed.

"Someone's here."

"I _just_ sent Emergency your location. I doubt it's them."

Juvia's heart swelled with fear. "It's _Tante_ Eileen's people." It had to be. "They're coming to finish the job. They're—"

"Juvia—"

"—coming to clean up her mess—"

"Juvia—"

"I don't know why I thought—"

" _Juvia_." The sharpness in Gray's voice shocked her into silence. He had a minute to get a word in and told her, "Go hide."

She realized he was right. She needed to be out of sight. Out of the house would be better but she didn't know if she could risk being seen. She could risk getting her boots, though, in case it came to that, and ran for them. She almost dropped the leather when she heard footsteps crunch on the entryway.

She had minimal time. She bounded to the opposite side of the house, where a closet waited by the back door. She got inside just as the front door opened and slowly, carefully. She closed the closet door only most of the way because she didn't want to alert anyone to her presence if they heard the latch bolt snick against the striker plate.

There were coats behind her. Some of them were leather and smelled lovely like oil and hide, some of them were big winter things with real fur collars that tickled her nose and made her hot as she nestled back into them and waited.

Snowy feet stomped all over Acnologia's fine floors, one very heavy-set, one much lighter. Juvia tried to peek through the crack in the door but couldn't see them from her angle. She listened fixedly. Neither intruder spoke until they found Acnologia, then one of them said,

"You think he did this for himself?"

Juvia envisioned him poking at the blanket at Acnologia's side.

"Doubt it."

Juvia strained to hear better but it was silent. Then she saw someone move in the kitchen. They were scoping out the place.

_Looking for you._

She checked the call she had running with Gray. It was into four minutes and thirty-three seconds. He wasn't speaking on the other end of the line. Though it made her position more secure, she wished he'd say something so she'd know she wasn't truly alone.

One of the men walked past the crack in the door and the smell of gasoline assaulted her nose and made her eyes water, it was so strong. Juvia shrunk back without ever meaning to and nudged a hanger. It squeaked. The man on the other side froze and so did Juvia, her breath arrested and her heart, too, for what felt like a very, very long time.

The man looked left down the hallway, and right. He looked at the closet. Juvia locked eyes with him, though she hoped that it was too dark where she was for him to see much of anything.

The man's partner was doing something over on the other end of the house and he seemed to decide that was more interesting than pursuing this line of inquiry. He went back to what he was doing, dumping gasoline all over the floors now, Juvia saw. The fluid trundled down the hallway between the cracks in the floor.

 _They're setting it on fire,_ she realized perhaps too slowly. And she was trapped inside. Acnologia was, too, for that matter. It could be he was a bad person, but Juvia was sure there was only one person in her life that deserved to be stabbed and then burned, and it wasn't him.

She started formulating a plan, albeit a crazy one. When she thought about _how_ insane it was, she got discouraged., so she stopped thinking. She put on her boots, stuffed her phone in her bra, and just threw open the door and walked out.

The door bounced back on her—the man she thought had lost interest in her was coming back. He swore and clutched his nose with one hand and her arm with the other. He pulled her in so they were face-to-face. "What's this?"

"I'm one of _Tante_ Eileen's. Let go of me." She spoke with authority only to be laughed at.

"We answer to Zeref, not Eileen, and were told anyone in this house is…" He drew a smiling mouth on his neck, ear-to-ear.

Juvia was thin enough that she could wriggle out of his grasp, and once she was free, she ran. Two steps in, she was caught again. She leaned back hard and fell into a weapon of sorts, a tall, brass lamp that was awkward to swing around.

She made contact with his middle and set him to flinching around the blow. She wasn't strong enough to really make it hurt, though, and he was able to grab it out of her hand and wrench it away.

"Do you suppose _Tante_ Eileen will give us something a little extra for her head, Neinhart?" His voice carried through the house. Juvia hunted for another weapon and came up with a picture frame. It was heavier than the lamp and easier to throw. It smacked him on the cheek and split his skin. He flinched. Then he lunged for her and wrapped a thick, calloused hand around her arm. His fingers overlapped each other and this time, there wasn't an easy way for Juvia to escape.

He pulled her in and swung her against the wall, knocking all the air out of her lungs. Juvia sank to the floor in a hurry, her legs just going out from under her. The ground was cool on the back of her legs and her shoulders. She lay there and blinked up at Acnologia's perfectly white ceiling, where it expanded to his perfectly white walls.

Then she heard the falling of a gun's hammer and time sped up to bring her back to this moment. She rolled on her side and scrambled over Acnologia, looking for a weapon. He had nothing on him, she would have known otherwise as she undressed him earlier.

A shot went off and pinged off one of Acnologia's few ornaments on a nightstand, way too close to Juvia's head for comfort. She recoiled and the man behind her laughed and shot again, on the opposite side of her head. This time she screamed, she couldn't hold it all in.

More laughter. More gunfire. None of the shots ever hit her but they all came close.

"Don't play with her too much," called his partner from the opposite side of the house. "Zeref and _Tante_ Eileen'll want her dead."

The man sighed dramatically. "Fine. I suppose you're right." A change came over him then. His face smoothed and he pulled out an oni mask from his pocket. The horns were huge and sharp-tipped and the mouth was wide with a sinister grin. He set it over his face and his eyes got dark and blank.

 _He's a demon_ , Juvia thought with certainty. Her fear elevated as his gun raised and he put her dead in his sights. She crawled on hands and knees and reached for Acnologia's stand beside the couch. The seconds dragged on and on. Then her fingers hit brass and she yanked out the drawer and everything came spilling out. Handcuffs, cream, a dildo and lastly, his gun.

She slid over the safety and flicked down the hammer and shot without aiming. Her hands were surprisingly steady at that moment, steadier than they'd been in years. She hit the masked man in the thigh and he yelled and fumbled his gun.

His partner came into the room, blonde and handsome and cold.

Flight took over. Juvia shot to her feet and ran out the door. Neinhart followed her. He was taller, his legs longer, so he caught up with her easily. He grabbed her hair and yanked her back into wet snow at the base of the stairs. Juvia couldn't catch her breath, it was too cold. She could lift her foot, though, and lashed out with everything she had, getting Neinhart between the legs so badly, he dropped the gun he'd just pulled out. He grabbed her foot the second time and was twisting her leg like he planned on breaking it. Sirens wailed and he shot up his head, listening.

The sound was getting closer and closer. He snarled at Juvia. He, too, was a demon, she decided. Horrible and unforgiving.

He released her leg. Juvia followed his eyes to the gun he'd dropped. He reached for it. She darted forward and took him out at the knees. They tussled end over end. Juvia managed to get on top and fought viciously, scratching and punching and poking him in the eye so hard, she cut the corner of it and now he wept blood.

He threw her off a second later and took the advantage, putting both knees on the ground on either side of her breasts, and pinning her there with his weight. He yanked a knife from some fold in his clothes she could distinguish and swiped for her neck. Juvia caught his hands last-second and was able to push him up.

It didn't last long. He was stronger than she was and was well-equipped to deal with troublesome servers-turned-escorts. He bore down on her with all of his might and gained an inch. And another. The knife moved past her chin to where she couldn't see the point. Juvia wriggled up to try to get some room between them and her shoulder bumped something hard. It wasn't a shape she was very familiar with but it was one she thought she'd recognize anywhere.

Neinhart realized the same thing she did at the same time. He took his knife away and lifted up so he could grab the gun from her but as soon as she was able, Juvia twirled on her side and locked her hand around the weapon. The steel was wet, it was slippery, it was cold.

Juvia pointed and shot before Neinhart could get over his surprise that she'd been faster. She didn't need to worry about aim, Neinhart was so close, she couldn't miss.

She was splattered in blood as he fell forward and pinned her on the ground, dead weight. Juvia yelled, she couldn't help it. No one answered; Acnologia's driveway was long and hidden from the road by shrubs.

It took her two tries to successfully free herself from his body weight. He slumped over into the driveway and left a hole in the snow with his warm blood.

Sirens warbled off buildings and echoed to her ears. Juvia looked down at the (dead? Dying?) man.

Panic made her thoughts snowball. She'd shot someone. And now the police were almost there. They were going to take her away and Aria wouldn't see her anymore because Gray wouldn't want her to.

She did the only thing she could think to, shot to her feet with someone else's grace and started to run.

Snow hit her bare legs and turned them numb in no time. She pushed on past the discomfort, first cutting through the bush to Acnologia's neighbour's yard five hundred meters away, and then taking her chances, breaking out across the street to dart onto the trail that would take her _away_ from the police.

The bush swallowed her just as the nose of a fire truck, followed by a squad car, swept down the otherwise silent street. Juvia pumped her arms and picked her knees up to easily get over obstructions like rocks and roots and garbage.

Her phone started vibrating against her breast, ringing all the way to voicemail. Sure that it was Gray, Juvia looked back over her shoulder. The trail was clear. She faced forward again and had to duck under a tree branch that was laden with icy snow.

Her phone rang again.

Juvia passed behind stores and restaurants. She passed by a steel factory that smelled like burning. She passed by the river. She came to a dead stop when she saw a conglomerate of police vehicles, though, beside a public school that was closed for the evening. She almost turned and started to run the other way but she heard screaming and peeked through the trees where she saw a girl that could have been Mira's twin picked up by the elbows by two huge policemen and carted away into a cruiser.

She saw pink next and assumed Natsu. The angle was bad. She watched him get pulled out of the car he was in, pushed against the hood, and slapped with a pair of handcuffs. His eyes cut through the trees and seemed to zero in on her. Juvia's adrenaline yo-yoed as recognition passed over his face and his mouth opened like he was going to say something.

The moment passed. The police helped him upright and guided him to a separate cruiser.

Her phone rang _again,_ jarring Juvia from her shock. She pulled it out this time and checked the screen. She had four missed calls from Gray and three from Erza. A text came through from Gray that said, _You're not in trouble but I_ need _to know where you are. I need to know you're safe._

Erza sent her a text, too, that said, _it's ready_.

Juvia considered calling her. She thought the only thing she'd do on the phone was cry, though.

 _Okay,_ she texted back. She needed to stay true to her word. _Tante_ Erza had been good to her and if this was the price for that, then she'd pay it.

She took in two huge breaths before starting off again. She still ran, though now she went slower and actually paid attention to where she was going, moving north through town past the rich district, through the middle-class, and into the Stacks, where the trail terminated and she was suddenly totally exposed in the middle of grubby community belt.

Juvia wrapped her arms around her middle to—hopefully—hide most of the blood, and walked with purpose toward Maple Crescent. It sounded nice, but it was a gross street where the singles peeled like dead skin and the shutters hung crooked like lazy eyes. There was one maple on the stretch, and its branches sagged toward the ground as if burdened by secrets.

Behind that tree was a squat wood cottage in ill repair. None of its windows had glass and the only thing keeping the front door closed was a piece of wood hammered across its surface. The backdoor, however, though its frame was badly warped, still opened and closed with a doorknob.

Juvia reached into her bra and pulled out her phone. She tapped the address into a message box and hit _Send_. She deleted the message and threw her phone into one of the high, unruly cedar bushes.

Also in her bra was a plain silver key with a square head. She put it in the lock and wrenched it to the right. The deadbolt _clucked_ and the door popped open only after Juvia put her shoulder into it and pushed with all of her weight.

It smelled like turpentine and mouse pee inside and the floors were slathered in a thick layer of dust, except where snow had melted over the floor, tracked in by footprints. Juvia's heart again got heavy with fear. She clutched her key tight and slid into the house.

She was immediately in the kitchen. There were things left on the counter—mostly real estate agent's cards, though there were an ancient lantern, an old coffee tin and a bowl that looked like it had fish in it at one time, all just collecting dust.

Juvia moved into the living room. It was in much the same condition, though here, there was a couch that looked like it had been torn up by mice.

"Hello?" Her voice was absorbed by the walls and went almost nowhere. "Hello? Who's here?"

A floorboard croaked upstairs, where the attic had been converted to a living space. Juvia gripped the handrail and leaned way back. A silhouette peeked back at her and asked,

"What are you doing here?"

Juvia swallowed back a lump in her throat. "I needed somewhere safe."

"What for?"

"I killed a man." She didn't even have to pretend to be shaken, she felt like she was sand running through a shaking sieve, each piece of her scattered somewhere else.

 _It's the withdrawal,_ she thought. _It's the fear. It's the anxiety._

Boots thudded down the stairs. Kyouka almost always was moving too fast. Juvia thought that's why everyone just accepted that she was the Spider for so long. She and _Tante_ Eileen were cruel in many of the same ways, too, though _Tante_ Eileen had never put her hands on her the way Kyouka had.

Kyouka got to the bottom of the stairs and stepped into the grainy light. She looked rough. Strung out and tired and stressed and _manic,_ almost.

"Are you alone?"

Juvia took a step back, Kyouka was right in her personal space. Kyouka followed her right up to the point where Juvia backed into the opposite wall. Spider webs tangled in her hair and one, small and black, skittered down her bare and winter-kissed arm. Her skin was hyper-sensitive despite the cold and she felt every little leg brushing over her arm hair.

"Answer me."

"Yes," Juvia stammered.

Kyouka closed her eyes and smiled a little smile. "Good."

Juvia didn't feel like it was _good._ She wished for her phone back. She wished she was more of a coward and never came to this place. She wished she'd let the police arrest her for killing one bad man.

Kyouka opened her eyes and her mouth turned into a benevolent smile. "I'm so happy to see you. Are you happy to see me?"

"Yes, _Tante_."

Kyouka poked one long nail into Juvia's chest. "I know you better than you know yourself, Juvia. I know that you're a _liar._ Why aren't you happy to see your _Tante_? _"_

Juvia cringed; there was no stopping it. "You scare me."

"Because you _watched_ when Eileen locked me up in her fucking basement and fed me fentanyl?"

"Yes."

"Because you know that I'm mad that you could have at least tried to help me escape but you didn't?"

Juvia curled her fingers into fists and straightened her shoulders as much as possible. "I liked it."

Kyouka stared at her, and then a surprised laugh bubbled out of her throat. "You liked it?"

"You were so mean to me all the time, you deserved this. _Tante_ Eileen never hurt me. She gave me what I needed when I needed it."

"You were an afterthought for Eileen. Every night she thought about you once, she told me. _Should I kill Juvia,_ she wondered. And then when she didn't have a definite answer, she pushed you out of her head until she needed someone disposable to do a drug run. She'd hope that you'd get yourself shot or caught. She was fucking annoyed when that loser arrested you but let you go. She didn't want to have to do the work herself. She just wanted you to just go away."

"At least she thought of me at all. You just used me." That earned her a slap. Her cheek stung. She backed up and hit the wall once more. Another spider wheeled down her arm. She stopped feeling its legs once Kyouka slapped her again. She was balancing on the razor blade of blind rage. Juvia _hated_ when she was like this. Tipping one way, she'd be _lunatic_ , the other, she'd apologize.

"No one loved you like I loved you, Juvia, how _dare_ you suggest otherwise?"

Juvia's eyes watered; she couldn't contain the tears. All of today was just _too much_ and this was the cherry on the horrible cake. Kyouka watched her cry. Sometimes, she'd do that. Juvia prepared herself for the next step.

Kyouka moved quickly, almost like she was going to hit her, but she wrapped her arms around her shoulders and Juvia forced herself to do what she _always_ did. She leaned into her and pushed her face against Kyouka's shoulder. She smelled like dust and blood and sweat.

Juvia's mouth moved. "I was scared of _Tante_ Eileen. Forgive me."

Kyouka leaned back and pushed Juvia's hair from her face so she could look into her eyes. Juvia _still_ waited for the worse but Kyouka said to her, "I have funds. I'm leaving Magnolia."

"When?"

"Now. Come with me."

"But Aria—"

"We'll come back for her." Kyouka assumed there was only one answer. She took Juvia by the arm and pulled her up the rickety stairs into an attic where the mouse pee stench originated from. There was a small square window that allowed in the barest amount of light. In it, Juvia saw what Kyouka had been doing up there. The left wall had been torn out and a briefcase was on the floor. It was open and there were stacks of cash inside, as of yet untouched.

"What's this?"

"The price of freedom," Kyouka said. She thumbed through the money. Juvia had never seen so much. Her mind went to dark places when she considered what that kind of cash could buy. An awful lot of murder when put into the right hands. An awful lot of drugs in her own. Her palms _itched_ and her chest felt so, so hollow. Her blood _burned._

Movement down on the ground brought her eyes away from the money, out to the street where black Jeep pulled up to the curb. A blonde head of hair exited the driver's side. Juvia looked away before she could see the passenger.

Kyouka's head was down and she was counting the money

Juvia took a step back and reached for the doorframe. It held her up when she only wanted to fall. She took another step back.

Kyouka's head came up. "What are you doing?"

"I feel sick, _Tante_ ," Juvia squeezed out.

Kyouka opened her mouth to respond; the hinges on the kitchen door squealed and she got quiet, listening. Juvia heard the scuff of a soft sole over a filthy floor. She clenched her jaw and took another step back. Kyouka closed her briefcase and stood, her intent unclear; her eyes were blank and in the blankness was wickedness, though.

"Did you call someone?"

There wasn't much sense in lying. "You're going to be arrested for all those murders."

"You fucking bitch."

Juvia prepared herself for pain. Kyouka took to the window, though, grabbing its ledge and forcing it up. Cold air rushed into the already cold attic. She pushed on the screen with force and it popped out and fell onto the snowy ground a storey and a half below. She started to climb out after it. That wasn't part of the plan, she was supposed to _stay_ there. She was supposed to go to jail and the nightmare was going to be over.

Kyouka was making good headway. One leg and her shoulders were out on the slippery roof. Juvia saw her second chance slipping through her fingers. Though she was scared, she grabbed Kyouka's leg and _yanked._ Kyouka yelled and kicked at her. Juvia was jerked off balance; she thought she was going to lose her hold but she managed to hang on for another moment. Long enough to _pull_ with all of her weight and tug Kyouka back in. She landed on her back and looked stunned.

Footsteps pounding on the stairs knocked that dulled look from her face. She was back up and going again for the window. Juvia grabbed the closest thing she could—Kyouka's hair—and pulled her back so hard, she was on the ground again.

Juvia thought she'd bought enough time to make her own escape but Kyouka let her rage get the better of her. She grabbed Juvia by the back of her already ruined dress and wrecked it further, pulling it so hard that it hung up on her neck and the buttons burst, four in a row. Juvia choked and fell backwards. Kyouka was on her like a fly on rot, straddling her middle and lifting the briefcase. She brought it down two-handed like she planned on crushing Juvia's skull with it. Juvia protected her face with her hands and felt pain radiate through her wrists into her elbows and even her shoulders. She cried out. Kyouka lifted the briefcase and did it again. Juvia couldn't catch this one as easily and felt the corner brush her forehead. It hurt immediately and she saw black spots.

Kyouka's weight was suddenly lifted from her body. Juvia couldn't _see_ what was happening, everything was whirling by so quickly, but she heard Kyouka's screams and she heard her hit the floor, and she felt that briefcase brush over her legs again, leaving her with _more_ bruises.

More feet rushed up the stairs. People were yelling now. Armed police officers gushed into the room like fire ants rushed from their colonies. They were as prickly as fire ants, too, shoving aside both Jellal and Laxus and taking Kyouka by the shoulders and forcing her against the wall. Kyouka was spitting profanities that no one seemed to care about.

Juvia closed her eyes and pressed her sore hands against them for as long as she was permitted while the chaos ensued. Moments. A gentle hand rested on her shoulder. Juvia opened her eyes and saw Jellal and a paramedic over his shoulder. And over _her_ shoulder was Gray. It was hard to tell if he was angry or not. It _always_ was that way, though.

"Don't move," the paramedic ordered. Juvia stopped trying to rise and let her do her examination.

* * *

The interrogation room was colder than she remembered it being. Juvia nestled into the blanket the paramedics gave her and eyed the table. There were score marks on its surface. Deep ones from the hard edges of handcuffs.

"Can you take us through everything?" asked the blonde detective. Juvia couldn't remember his name so in her mind, she called him Pelican because of his pale hair and his large mouth and severe eyes. She couldn't tell if he was handsome or not. He looked cranky, though.

"Can I see Gray?"

"When you give us our statement."

"Why isn't Detective Fernandez or Dreyar here?"

The dark haired one Juvia had nicknamed Grackle said, "This is our case, Miss Lockser."

"It was theirs."

"And now it's ours."

"I want to talk to them."

"That's impossible, I'm sorry. Let's start at the beginning of your day. What were you doing?"

She crossed her arms and sunk into her chair. Her eyes felt heavy with tears again. She didn't even know _why_. Just because. For the same reason her stomach _actually_ felt sick, probably. She was going through another craving and though she shivered, she was sweaty.

"Miss Lockser?"

"Are you okay?"

No, she was not. "Can I get some water?"

Pelican sighed dramatically and scraped his chair back. The door slammed closed behind him. It was just her and Grackle. If she squinted hard, his hair reminded her of Gray's, though it was darker than Gray's was now. It seemed likely that he didn't have a girl like her in his life, messing things up for him and adding more stress.

"Is he here?"

"Detective Fullbuster?"

Juvia nodded.

"He's here, waiting for you to be done in here."

She wanted to see him badly.

Grackle was astute. "Soon as you give us your statement, Miss Lockser, you can see him."

She started before Pelican—Detective _Eucliffe_ , she learned later—returned. " _Tante_ Eileen's been trying to broker a business deal with Acnologia. I've been… servicing him for her for the last few days, as an escort does."

"I understood you were a server at Somnium?"

She lifted her shoulder. "Yeah."

"Then why choose you for the job and not someone else?"

Juvia again lifted her shoulder. "She thought he'd like it when I spoke to him in my mother tongue. She thought he'd… trust me because of it. And if he didn't, he'd kill me and she'd have one less problem, I guess."

He looked up at her from beneath a fringe of hair that had fallen out of his slicked-back style. "Why would you say that?"

"Her and I have been on poor terms since _Tante_ Kyouka betrayed her," Juvia said matter-of-factly.

"Poor enough to commit murder?"

"That's how _Tante_ Eileen takes care of all of her Big Problems."

"You were at Kyouka's side quite a lot, weren't you?"

"Yes."

He nodded his head and scribbled something on a notebook in his lap, saying, "I can see why that may have been a problem for your _Tante."_

"I guess."

He seemed satisfied enough and said, "Let's talk about this afternoon."

"Acnologia called me and asked me to go to him. It was unconventional because Somnium's been closed and _Tante_ Eileen's been unreachable, but I went anyway. Everyone thinks he's awful but he's just… shy, I guess. I was there for two hours. We had dinner and we went upstairs." She rubbed her hands on her bare arms. They were still cold. "He had drugs."

"You did drugs with him?"

"Cocaine." She wished it was fentanyl. "I didn't have much. I want to be better." He wrote more stuff that Juvia pretended she wasn't worried about. "He likes to get physical after." She didn't know how to say it. "I was doing things the way he liked and then someone knocked on his door. He was going to ignore it but when he saw it was _Tante_ Eileen's car out front, he told me to wait up in the room and he'd get rid of her."

She trailed off for long enough that the detective prodded her. "Then what?"

"I waited in his room. They argued."

"About?"

"Me." Whenever she needed to lie, she could close her eyes and think about being there for her daughter. She could justify almost anything like that. "I was afraid she wouldn't want me there without her permission and I was right. She didn't like that Acnologia wasn't paying. They argued badly and then—" More tears filled her eyes. She knew exactly where these came from. She did actually like Acnologia. He was sort of sweet in his own way. "She stabbed him."

The detective handed her a tissue. Juvia took a moment to daub her eyes and get herself back under control. "I guess she hadn't planned on things escalating so quickly and she left in a hurry. I went downstairs and called Gray. He called an ambulance. I wanted to stay there but more people showed up. These ones were for me." She took in a fortifying breath and told nothing but the truth here, right down to how she shot a man because he was trying to cut her throat, though she was _terrified_ of what might happen to her. She _needed_ to sprinkle a bit of truth with the lies. Mira and _Tante_ Erza had taught her that months ago.

"And then you ran."

"I was scared. I didn't even think about what I was doing."

More scribbling in his notepad.

"Am I in trouble for that?"

"Neinhart and his partner that went by the name of _Bloodman,_ were contract killers the police have been after for a long time. You acted in self-defence," he told her and Juvia cried _more._ He handed her more tissue. Once she sort of had herself under control, he asked, "How did you end up at that house in the Stacks, Juvia?"

" _Tante_ Kyouka showed it to me once and told me if I was ever in trouble, to go there. It was a place safe for any Somnium employee. I wasn't expecting to find her there, though."

He sucked on his teeth and consulted his notepad. "What happened when you did see her?"

"She asked me to run away with her with the money _Tante_ Eileen had paid her and Seilah to commit the Nightshade murders."

"She said that to you?"

"Yes. She was stealing the money from the house, though, where _Tante_ Eileen had hidden it. She said that _Tante_ Eileen _wasn't_ going to pay her for framing Mira. She killed Seilah and was trying to do the same to her, to tie up loose ends and to keep it coming back on her. _Tante_ Kyouka said we had to hurry and get out of there before _Tante_ Eileen realized that she knew where the money was hidden."

He finally pushed the lock of hair back from his forehead. "Why would Eileen try to set up Mira?"

"She doesn't like that Erza and Mira are friends. Or that Erza chose Mira over her and the business."

"What do you mean?"

"She saw that _Tante_ Erza had plans to open Purgatory with Mira as the manager and…" Juvia shrugged. "She really hates Mira. I don't even know why. She thinks she's bad for Erza or something."

 _Scribble, scribble._ "Why do you think she used Kyouka and Seilah for the job?"

Juvia said, "Convenience. Leverage. _Tante_ Eileen had already faked Kyouka's death and held her against her will for the role she played in the Cardinal killings. Seilah knew I guess. She told _Tante_ Eileen she'd do anything to get Kyouka free. This was what _anything_ meant to _Tante_ Eileen."

 _Scribble._ "So you went upstairs, saw the money, then what?"

"I don't know. I guess I realized that Kyouka was _serious._ It scared me. I didn't want to run away with her. I didn't _like_ her. I didn't want to be involved in _any_ of this. I have a daughter and a life, even if it's fucked up. I couldn't sneak away to make a phone call so I thought I could text. I contacted Detective Fernandez. I was only able to text him the address, though, then Kyouka saw me and we started to fight."

He consulted the bruises on her arms and on her forehead, then made some notes. "Detective Fullbuster retrieved your phone from… a bush at the side of the house?"

Juvia locked her arms around her middle. " _Tante_ Kyouka tried to push me out the window. I must have dropped it."

He wore an excellently blank face; it was hard to say if he believed that made-up detail. "Then?"

"Then Detectives Fernandez and Dreyar showed up and broke up the fight."

He was quiet while he made _more_ notes. Juvia held out hope that that would be it. He burst her bubble by asking, "What do you know about Gildarts Clive?"

"He's _Tante_ Eileen's best enforcer."

"Has he ever killed for her before?"

"Never in front of me."

He looked like he'd swallowed a sour grape. He'd been hoping for a more definitive answer. "Did you ever see him speaking with Seilah?"

"I didn't know who she was at the time, but yes. In Somnium's bar."

"Did you ever hear the nature of their conversations?"

She shook her head. "They were whispering."

He nodded. Scribbled again. "What about any dealings Miss Belserion may have had with Natsu Dragneel?"

"I saw him in Somnium occasionally," Juvia admitted, "But I never saw them having secret meetings."

He sat back in his chair and tapped on his notepad, scanning everything. The door opened and his partner came through, holding a glass of water. By the expression on his face, he'd hung back and listened to everything. Once Pelican had passed off the water and sat, Grackle said, "Can we go back to the part where your _Tante_ was trying to frame Miss Strauss?"

"What about Gray?"

"Just as soon as you clear that up for me."

He lied. He made her tell her story four more times in a variety of ways before he was satisfied and she was allowed to see Gray, who waited for her outside the interrogation room in civilian clothes, things he'd obviously put together in a rush—an old, torn Alice Cooper T-shirt and a pair of faded black jeans, a pair of scuffed up work boots.

He held out his hand to her despite their audience and was gentler than he'd been in many months, turning her arms over and looking at the line of blue Kyouka's briefcase left, and tucking her hair behind her ear so he could look at that lump, too. He sighed and pulled her in. He was tall enough that his cheek could rest on her head. He smelled faintly like aftershave and felt familiar.

Juvia buried her nose in his collar and they stayed like that for a long time while people moved past them, police officers and guards and technicians, medical examiners and others, too, that Juvia didn't recognize.

Eventually, Gray put his hand on her neck, over her spider tattoo, and led her out of the station and into his truck.


	25. Chapter 25

**_ XXV: Mira _ **

Erza slid her fingers rhythmically through Mira's hair. The feeling was distracting in that it slowed the tears that she thought would be never-ending, and made every part of her body tingle. Music quietly oozed out of the overhead speaker. Mira only caught bits and pieces of it,

_Keep your halos tight,  
I'm your God or your guardian_

Those she wanted to hear. Erza had put the music on special just for her. Everything today was special just for her, the late morning fuck, the pamper treatment of massaging and combing her hair, the second afternoon fuck in which Erza didn't even worry about making herself come. The catered food brought up to Mira's room and then all of her favourite songs playing quietly on Purgatory's sound system.

_Keep your halo tight  
One hand on the trigger, the other hand in mine_

"Every time I try to do something right for her, I always fuck it up."

_Because now_

Erza's fingers pressed harder, not so they were painful, but on the brink of such. " _Everything_ fucked up. Natsu wasn't supposed to get my mother's help getting her out, Lisanna wasn't supposed to run off, she wasn't supposed to find Kyouka just like Seilah wasn't supposed to enlist Kyouka's help once she was free. I told them, do the job, then get out of town, but no one fucking listens. Telling her to stop killing is like trying to stop a tide."

There was only supposed to be three deaths. Alzack, the test pilot to make sure that this could work before enlisting Seilah's help, and Simon because Mira couldn't help but feel bitter towards the Mikizuchi's. And then Jose because they needed to cover their tracks.

The rest? Mira couldn't say what happened, exactly. Kyouka didn't leave town when she was supposed to, and those three together, Kyouka, Seilah and Kagura, were a recipe for disaster.

Erza finished, "Freed was never supposed to _go along_ with their craziness and Bickslow was _never_ supposed to be on the scene."

_Cupid carries a gun_

"We invite disaster." She knew how miserable and hopeless she sounded but she couldn't help it. Erza wouldn't deny her that.

_Better pray for hell, not hallelujah_

"Do you think I did the right thing?"

_Better pray for hell_

"I think you did the only thing you could have done."

_Not hallelujah_

"I didn't think Natsu would agree." Had _hoped_ , secretly. Even as Laxus was telling her to call the police, to turn Lisanna in, even as she was _listening_ , Mira wanted Natsu to be his old, stubborn self and tell her _no._ She wanted them to run. She wanted Lisanna to then _insist_ that they come for her. To take her by force if they had to. She wanted to kiss Laxus firmly on the mouth and walk _away_. She wanted to climb into the stolen vehicle they found Natsu in and tell him, _point it anywhere. The mountains, the ocean, I don't care. Let's just get out of this place._

She didn't, though. She did what Laxus thought was the right thing and why? Because he opened his stupid mouth and told her that he loved her and _she believed him_. God. It was Erza's number one rule. Never let them fall in love with you. She'd always underestimated the importance of that but now as she looked at her sister's bleak lifetime sentence, she wondered if she'd made a huge mistake.

"It's not so bad," Erza assured her in that calm, strong way Erza had. "Lisanna is put away but she did need help, Mira. She'll get it now and it'll be easier on you." Like _easier on you_ was the way that it should be.

Mira rifled for an argument. She had _none,_ the same way she had none for Laxus, and for the same reason, too _._ She loved Erza. She trusted her. And it could be selfish, but she did want things to be easier, was that so _wrong_?

"We can relax a little. Angel set off the car bomb, the police arrested my mother, we have Purgatory, you have Laxus. We did get revenge and at the end of it, we have everything we wanted."

That was almost true. "Zeref never paid," Mira told the ceiling.

"That was supposed to be Natsu's part."

"He was arrested when Lisanna was," Mira said, though Erza already knew. She thought the jury would go easy on him once they heard the day's events but he did steal a car.

"I have it on good authority that Zeref's suddenly short a few enforcers and his house is empty while he's out trying to expunge his brother's name. The rest I'll leave up to you," Erza said.

Her stomach roiled when she imagined what was to come. "Okay."

Erza nodded and looked like the Matriarch she'd been impersonating for months. Mister Sandman poured out of her phone, though, Jellal's personal ringtone, and shattered the image. Her lips pursed and Mira recognized nervousness.

"I need to take this," she said and sat up from the narrow single mattress. Her voice always developed a softer quality whenever she spoke to Jellal. Mira didn't think she was aware of it and didn't want to point it out just in case she ruined something good for her.

"Come here," she said and Jellal replied something back. She hung up again.

"Do you think he suspects?"

Erza flopped back to the mattress and held her phone over her breast, putting serious thought into Mira's question. "He's not stupid. He doesn't have anything, either, though. Once Angel testifies and says she saw my mother murder Seilah, and Juvia testifies against Kyouka, any jury would convict them. They have evidence, the bank account trails leading back to Brandish—we couldn't have asked for a better set up, honestly. Brandish _handed_ that to us when she admitted Seilah had been propositioning her to get that information." Greedy Seilah, unsatisfied with the one kill. She wanted _Tante_ Eileen to suffer. "It'll look like my mother tried her hardest to cover her tracks when she used Seilah and tried to frame you but couldn't quite."

The only work Erza had to do was hire someone to hack her mother's off-shore bank account and deposit money into Brandish's account, a contact she'd gotten through Natsu.

"The car bomb?"

"Everyone will think it was Acnologia's lackeys getting revenge. The car was destroyed, wiping Angel's prints off the bomb."

And Gildarts was locked up so there was no one left who cared enough to retaliate. It was tidy. Mira didn't know how to quite repay her. It was an elaborate and dangerous scheme all for the sake of revenge and Erza never once balked. "Thank you."

"Finish up with Zeref before this evening, if you can, the lawyer's coming at eight-thirty to make the transfer."

Despite the rush, Mira kissed her long and slow and used that as fortification for what was to come.

* * *

She didn't _have_ to curl her hair. She didn't _have_ to put on eyeliner or lipstick. She didn't _have_ to make sure that she looked the best she possibly could, but she did because she wanted that to be the last image in Zeref's mind. She wanted to glow like a wrathful goddess. She wanted him to be in awe.

She walked because she needed the movement to keep her head clear, and she went past the school where the police had arrested Lisanna because… well, she couldn't quite say _what_ drew her in that direction, but she looked at it greedily, the tire treads and the boot treads in the slushy snow. Some of those footprints were Lisanna's. She hadn't even been to see her yet.

_Soon,_ Mira told herself.

Wind swiped at her cheeks and left them red and snow lapped at her feet, making them cold despite how quickly she walked. It was almost a relief when Zeref's mansion popped out of the darkening skyline, practically a megalith, cold and dark and empty.

The gates were locked, of course. Mira pressed the call button just to be sure she was alone. No one answered, so she took to the ditch and dodged onto his property by slipping between the huge hedgerows of cedars. Snow plopped down her collar. She pulled it out on her way up the ever long driveway, keeping herself to the lawn rather than the pavement so when Zeref finally returned home, he wasn't immediately wizened to her presence.

She walked by the bench where she and Elfman had sat; she could almost see her brother there wearing that same old brooding expression, telling her that if she was going to give the police protection the slip, she was going to have to accept the protection of Zeref's men. That was _before_ she wanted him dead when she still thought she needed to be sweet and kind to the people society said pushed the pawns around.

She walked past the bench without another glance at it. Elfman was dead. That Mira was dead, too. She was glad about that. That Mira had a hard time protecting herself. She had a hard time doing what needed to be done. That Mira didn't know how to put on a cool face and let the madness take her.

There was only one light on inside as far as Mira could see. It was in the living room, a tall, shaded lamp. The house looked lonely as seen through the window of the front door, an empty leather seat, a glass coffee table with some empty tumblers on it, expensive vases that came from parts of the world Mira couldn't pronounce.

She tried the door. It was unlocked, of course. Zeref would _never_ think to lock his front door. He had the gate, after all, and who would dare break into his house?

The house smelled familiar, like cleaning agent and chlorine from the indoor pool, and laundry detergent and cologne. Those scents brought her back to a time when everything was just a little less complicated. She'd been in the pool and she'd been in Zeref's bed with her skin still damp, she'd picked up Zeref's cologne and sprayed a little on his neck, then adjusting his tie so he looked good before going out to a meeting that would have likely seen someone dead.

She took off her coat and wrapped it over her arm and after drying off her shoes, walked straight through the house to Zeref's personal room. It was exactly how she remembered it. Even the comforter was the same.

She slung her coat over Zeref's armchair, on top of a grey pinstriped suit and dropped down onto the bed. She had time to arrange herself and used a mirror on the ceiling above to ensure she looked good. She wanted to be as close to that goddess as possible.

Her phone vibrated in her breast pocket. She took it out and checked the screen. Laxus texted _Where are you?_

She pulled up her leather gloves and typed back a vague non-answer. _I have to go see Lisanna,_ and, predictably, he wrote back,

_I can drive you there._ Not _that's what you're doing, not where you are_. It seemed like everyone lately, he, too, was hurting and lonely and distracted.

She sent him a kiss emoji. _I'll text you when I'm ready,_ and he answered,

_Okay._

She pulled her gloves back on.

While Mira waited, she imagined what she was going to say and how she was going to say it or if she was going to lead with anything at all. She relived pulling the trigger on Superintendent Torres. How doing that had _broken_ something inside her, a dam that was keeping back a swath of darkness. How she hadn't gone a _single day_ without thinking about that moment. There really _was_ justice in the world. She couldn't be a police officer to dole it out, so she'd be a vigilante. One was almost as good as the other.

The front door clicked open. She heard Zeref sigh. She played out in her mind his next move. He'd pour himself a whisky. He always did when he was stressed, it didn't matter if he was just about to come to bed or not. He'd swallow it all back in one go and leave the glass on the stand for the maids in the morning. Then he'd loosen his tie. She felt around her throat for the one she'd taken from Laxus. It was tight and hung too low because he was so much bigger than her.

Zeref would then strip off his jacket and start heading toward the room. He had a gun on his hip that Mira knew he'd take out so he could flick the safety on. He always had it off during the day, afraid that someone would try to catch him unawares in the street. She removed her own weapon, the gun she'd taken from Gildarts' store of them before the police had raided his stash at Somnium, and thumbed the safety, too. The metal was rubbed smooth, Gildarts had used it so many times.

Zeref filled the doorway and Mira's heart thudded with excitement. She put her gun back into its holster on her hip, beneath the hang of her borrowed button-down shirt, also Laxus', and schooled her face so when he turned on the light, she looked casual and tranquil.

To his credit, he didn't jump or yell or even step back. He looked at Mira with his lips pursed and sighed. "Mirajane."

He had a nice way of saying her name. He always had. A little bit exotic, undeniably dangerous. He was always on the brink of cracking his calm demeanor and doing something insane. "Hi, Zeref."

"To what do I owe the pleasure?"

She sat up and swung her feet to the floor. " _Tante_ Erza and Natsu have sent me to negotiate terms."

Zeref allowed her to rise and to come close. "My brother?"

"Did he not mention Erza's offer?"

"We haven't had much time to talk. He's in jail, Mira, because of your loony sister."

"Because of _you_." She punctuated her words with little, casual flicks of her fingers over his shoulder like she was tidying his pressed dress shirt, though it was still so crisp, it looked like it hadn't been worn. "You knew what he wanted and you still set Lisanna up because you're more spiteful than you are loyal to your own flesh and blood."

He looked the right amount of pissed off. He grabbed her around the throat just like he used to and pulled her in so their noses were nearly touching. "Your sister was arrested today based on a call _you_ made. Get off your pedestal because you're far more selfish than me. I would never have given my brother up." His breath smelled like whisky and his fingers felt like vices.

Mira channeled Laxus. "Making that call was the most unselfish thing I could have done. You can't understand that, but your brother could, which is why he made that sacrifice. He'll be in jail for a year and a half, maybe, given that your lawyers are so damn good and it's his first convicted offence, but it was still at risk to himself. You've never given up anything like that, have you? You've never loved anyone enough."

His fingers got tighter. Mira felt her windpipe closing and let it happen. There was bliss in his rage. To know that he was so bothered was _mollifying_. It was justice for the long nights she'd spent thinking about this day.

Zeref seemed to realize the peace she was besotted with and released her like she'd burned him. He took a step back and brought in a deep breath. He looked more composed. "You're right. Lonely me. You're so much better."

"Don't _placate_ me."

"I thought that's what you wanted? Affirmation you were doing the right thing for all the right reasons?"

She did want it. Not from him, though. "Your approval's worthless."

"I remember a woman that would sit on my lap and demand my feedback. _Tell me I'm beautiful. Tell me when I make you feel good. Fuck me against the window so everyone can see and whisper about how fucking beautiful we are. Tell me I'm perfect. Tell me._ Sometimes, I'd wonder if you should be paying _me._ "

Mira's ire pricked. "Men that buy escorts are all the same. They never want to make you feel good, we have to get our kicks someway."

"You're a whore. You have one job. Your clients aren't there to validate you. Can I suggest therapy will help with that?"

"I'm done with this."

Zeref's composure turned to humour when Mira pulled out her gun and aimed it at him. "Mira. The last time you were here and pointed a gun at me, you froze and couldn't pull the trigger."

"I've killed plenty of men since then." Superintendent Torres lay bleeding before her eyes once more, and Alzack. He'd blathered when he took the wrong dose of poison. Mira had to kill him because she felt a bit sick. After that, though… Simon was easy. She thought poisoning him was the way to go but shooting him had been _satisfying_.

Mira saw the scorn in Zeref's face. He knew she'd killed, obviously, but he didn't think she could kill _him._ They had history, some of it was good, a lot of it was bad, but all of it had been passionate in one form or another. "You might be angry but there's only been one thing important to you, Mira, and people don't change." He took money from his breast pocket, a clip of it with hundreds poking out. He placed it in her free hand and his meaning was clear. "After, we'll talk _Tante_ Erza's conditions."

She wasn't usually so dumbfounded. Where were his fear and his disbelief and his grovelling? But of course, men like Zeref didn't grovel.

He took her by the hip and pulled her in. His lips met her neck where his fingers had left bands of red. Mira's eyes fluttered. She _did_ like his erratic behaviour. He was as insane as he claimed Lisanna to be, just in different ways. He could hide his viciousness beneath a granite exterior. That's why she'd been so infatuated with him.

He took her arm and slid his hand up to her wrist. His fingers tightened and he started to change the direction she was pointing. Mira wasn't sure if she was appalled mostly with his _audacity_ , to think there would be any sort of forgiveness after he agreed to help her and then betrayed her so thoroughly or appalled with herself because she was _letting_ him touch her and move her.

She squeezed the trigger before he could get an inch further. Zeref went stiff. His shirt got red and his eyes got glassy. It took him a few seconds to drop to his knees, and then to fall to his side. He was still alive when Mira bent down and brushed his hair back from his forehead. He was beautiful. The danger he'd courted for so long was bleeding out, though, and he started to look delicate. Everyone died the same. Sadly. Gasping in denial, looking like they'd been betrayed by what had been the status quo for so long.

"That's for Elfman and for Lisanna."

He grabbed Laxus' tie and used it to pull her down. He was surprisingly strong for a dying man. He told her only, "She hates you."

* * *

Mira used the glow of a street lamp to check herself for blood. Her shirt was mussed up and wrinkled and her tie was pulled so tight, it restricted her breathing but she hadn't really noticed until she pulled it loose. Once the pressure was gone, she was able to feel where Zeref's fingers had been. They were going to leave a mark. She adjusted the tie again, lifting it up so it forced the collar of her shirt to cover her throat some. With any luck, Laxus wouldn't see it.

Mira slogged through the snow and back onto the highway. When she made it to the public school forty minutes away from Zeref's home, she texted Laxus her location. He didn't ask her what she was doing way out there; again, he was distracted. He arrived within ten minutes, looking like a total mess. It wasn't any one thing, in particular, it was the bags beneath his eyes and his messy hair and his unshaved face, his wrinkled clothes and the way his knuckles were white on the steering wheel.

When Mira got in, he narrowed in on his tie and his shirt. Her stomach flipped when he reached over and touched them. Mira felt her cheeks heat. Well before he could get into the uncomfortable topic of _why,_ she blurted, "I like wearing them." They made her feel like she was doing the right thing. The _good_ thing. They were the validation Zeref aptly suggested she needed.

"They look good on you," he told her with little pause for consideration.

Mira closed the door and the interior light went out. She used the light of the dash to see by and touched his cheek with the intent of kissing him and ending the conversation there. He put his forehead against hers and breathed out, though, stalling what was supposed to be something breezy. She breathed in and it was like taking in his frustration and helplessness. It tasted so bitter. She let him sit and hold her close because it was obvious he needed that more than he needed passion.

Laxus stroked her hair, pushing it all back from her neck. It hurt when his fingers would tangle in the little knots at the end but she was careful not to complain. "Are you okay?"

"It's been a long fucking day."

Mira kissed his cheek. He turned into her mouth and kissed her back, a solid press of lips that he maintained for a solid thirty seconds. In that time, Mira ran her fingers up his arm over his coat to his shoulders and his neck, where she swirled over his skin. He shivered and broke the kiss so he could take in a ragged breath. His arms wrapped around her middle and he clutched her like she was much more substantial than she was like she could hold him up in this thrashing storm. Mira did her best.

"I hate this," Laxus said against her neck. His breath was hot and gave her chills. "I hate my stupid empty house and I hate that I have to do funeral arrangements and I hate this fucking Jeep and all of his shit just hanging around. I hate that I have keys hidden in every fucking part of the house and I keep finding notes I left for him. I hate that every time I see them, I fucking feel like I'm suffocating."

"He's been there your entire life and has only been gone barely a day," Mira said against his shoulder. "Give yourself some time to get used to the idea."

"I don't _want_ to get used to the idea," he said hopelessly.

Mira said the only thing she could possibly. "I'm sorry I came to your house." She'd regretted it as soon as it happened. The whole ordeal had sowed a seed of unease and she'd tried to fix it but somethings couldn't be undone.

"I'm glad you came," he said after a moment of silence. "The heart attack could have come at any time and I'm glad you were there with me."

"Yeah, but—"

"Don't apologize for coming to me for help," he said firmly and Mira just couldn't argue. He took in a breath and seemed to compose himself. "Let's go see your sister."

* * *

Lisanna had been put right back in the asylum pending her trial. She was moved into the solitary ward, though, and from what Mira gathered from the doctors and the police that waited at the front, she'd be there pending her trail, and maybe even afterwards, too. She had limited visitors, her blood family for the first six months. Which meant only Mira. She hated Elfman for dying just like she would have hated him if he were alive, too. He would never have come. Never. Not once he decided he was bad for her.

Unlike Elfman, Mira understood that to do a little bit of good, you also had to do a little bit of bad.

She squeezed Laxus' hand and left him at the front while a stodgy and tall doctor led her through the pea green halls of the old ward toward the new, more high-tech section.

"We've started her medication again. The adjustment period will likely be more difficult than it was last time. Her mental state has degraded further."

Mira listened to the doctor continue but didn't answer.

The hospital stopped smelling like vinegar cleaner and started smelling like linen—clean, but scentless soaps, warm fabrics—and human, a much less pleasant smell. It wasn't directly in the air, but there were hits of uric acid and bile and fecal matter, just like there were hints of sickness. It was like the hospital but worse because tailing on the smells was crazed laughter or dry, helpless moans, nonsensical ramblings and erratic breathing. She didn't want to find the source of the latter.

"This way, Miss Strauss." The doctor went left at a T and took her down a hallway with plain grey doors and high windows for peering in. Mira caught her first glimpse of Lisanna through one of those foggy glasses. She was sitting on the single bed with her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms locked around them.

She looked at the far wall with an expression as blank as a slate. Her eyes were wet pools and her lips were chapped and she looked like someone had tossed her through a washer and dryer machine. She had bumps and bruises and cuts and empty stares for days.

"She's been like this since we brought her in. She won't eat and she won't speak. She just looks at the wall. It could be the medication but I suspect its most likely depression. She's been through quite a lot. She'll need you to lean on in the days to come."

"Thank you."

Even when the door opened and the doctor waved her in, Lisanna made no obvious movement, her eyes blinking twice, a familiar show of stress, and that was it. Mira sat down on the bed beside her and got into a similar position.

"Hey, Lisanna."

Nothing.

"I'm glad to see you and that you're safe."

Lisanna still did not acknowledge her.

Though she thought it might be dangerous territory, Mira said, "I'm sorry about what happened with Kagura." Eucliffe and Cheney had kept her appraised on the situation since bringing Lisanna in.

That got a response out of her. "You hated Kagura."

"But you liked her and I always want you to be happy."

Lisanna's lip curled.

"Laxus said he'd drive me out here every day to see you."

"Why? You hate it here."

"Why would you say that?"

"You wouldn't have tried to get me out otherwise."

Mira made her voice very, very quiet. "Is it wrong that I wanted you to be free?"

"It's wrong that you wanted that so you didn't have to try so hard or visit this shitty place."

Mira didn't know what to say. She was right in some regards; Mira's motives hadn't been entirely selfless. She hated walking through those doors and getting escorted by guards. She hated hearing the pointless screams and seeing the utter lunacy in people's eyes. It made _her_ feel like she was going insane, too.

"Go away, Mira," Lisanna said to the wall.

"I won't. I'm going to see you every day." The doctors had always said it was important not to alienate her, no matter _how_ strange everything got.

"Then I'm going to tell everyone what you did," Lisanna said calmly. "I'm going to tell them all about you and Natsu, fucking—"

Mira felt like she'd been slapped in the face. "Lisanna—"

Lisanna continued like that wasn't the biggest crime Mira could have committed. "And about how you started the killing for Erza and how Seilah was hired to finish. How she wanted her payment up front and that's how Kyouka got released."

"If that was true, Kyouka and Seilah could have just run off. It wouldn't have made sense for them to stick around."

"Unless, of course, they were promised money, too, to start a new life. But Erza didn't pay them. She killed Seilah and she used Kyouka as a fall person."

"Erza's not a killer." Not unless she was backed into a corner with no escape.

Lisanna's cheek got round with a half smile. "Did you do it, then? Did you like it? You did, didn't you? You can't stop now, can you? You—" She lost steam and her train of thought. She found it again a moment later, at a different station. "I'll tell everyone how you shot the Cardinal and then lied about it. I'll tell them how you cheated and tricked your way through everything and they'll never let you be a police officer, Mira. You get a room just like mine."

"I'll never be a police officer," Mira said candidly. "But I would spend the rest of my life here with you if it would make you better. I love you."

Lisanna wore an expression reminiscent of Zeref's earlier when he was trying to goad her and Mira just wouldn't take the bait. "Get out."

Mira was happy to oblige but took the time to hug her sister. She felt thin beneath her hands and cold. "I really do love you."

Lisanna didn't respond but Mira felt her arms twitch around her waist and knew no matter how bitter she felt, she loved her back. Natsu's history of bed partners wouldn't change that, neither would incarceration. They were the only family either had.

* * *

Laxus' house felt large and empty without Makarov puttering around, muttering profanities and being generally, and comically, miserable. Laxus walked in, took a look around at all the mess, and his shoulders sagged. He looked so defeated in the presence of bullet-chewed walls and caution tape.

"Are we allowed to be here?"

"It was released from police custody an hour ago," Laxus informed her. "Cleaners haven't been through yet, though."

She imagined he was concerned more with all the blood on his floor than the drywall Jacob's bullets left behind.

Laxus asked, "Do you mind?"

"I'm okay with it." Morbidly curious to go see what the blood looked like after it dried but she wasn't about to wander off on some weird quest for a reason she couldn't put a rational name to. "Are you hungry?"

"No."

She propped her hands on her hips. "When was the last time you ate?" He couldn't immediately answer. Mira shook her head and pointed to the kitchen table. "Sit."

Laxus shuffled over and in a very un-Laxus-like manner did as he was told without argument. Mira had to go and take his coat from his shoulders. She folded it over the back of the chair and put a kiss on his cheek. Then she happily started making him dinner, even if it was just a toasted tomato and mayo sandwich. Taking care of him was soothing.

"How was your sister?"

Mira paused the knife half-way through a tomato and thought about her answer. Laxus hadn't asked her much on the car ride back to his home. "She's upset with me."

"She'll get over it," he said.

Mira slid the knife the rest of the way through. "I know."

Laxus said nothing more. He was just kind of staring in the same way Lisanna had been. She set the sandwich down in front of him and ate hers; by the time she was through, he took his first bite. He ate the rest quickly like she knew he would. Even sadness couldn't keep Laxus' appetite at bay.

When he was done, Mira took his plate and tidied up. She could feel Laxus' eyes on her. He watched her every move and she knew he was thinking stupid domestic things. She knew she should take her _Tante's_ advice and get some distance between them before things got too serious. She also knew she didn't want to do that. She was sick of having no one but transients come through her life. The only one that had stuck around for any amount of time was Erza and she suspected that was only because they had common goals, first to survive the Barrel, then to survive the Cardinal, and lastly, to get revenge for the injustice done unto them by so many. If they hadn't had so much strife together, they never would be so close.

Laxus' chair scraped across the ground. He came to rest at her side, one hip against the counter, his hand reaching for hers. There was only one light on in the house and that was in the living room; it cast a ghostly glow on everything it touched, scooping out Laxus' cheeks and giving him dark circles beneath his eyes. He looked so tired staring at the clock.

Mira glanced at the clock face. "Is it really eight o'clock?"

"Gramps liked to watch CSI Miami at eight. We'd make fun of _Horatio Caine_ and his stupid sunglasses."

It felt like the wrong thing to say but Mira offered, "Did you want to watch it with me?"

Laxus actually considered her offer before dismissing her outright, but dismiss her he did, shaking his head and stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"What do you need, then?"

He lifted his shoulder and shook his head again. "I don't know. Nothing."

Mira turned off the sink and put the last plate in the drying rack. She then took his hand and brought him in for another hug. He was slow to respond but did snake his arms around her waist and hold onto her like a drowning man holds onto a life buoy. It made her feel important after Lisanna tried to shun her affection.

Laxus muttered into her shoulder, "Thanks for staying."

"Thanks for bringing me over." She could practically hear Erza yelling at her to shut up, to stop saying strange and complicated things.

Laxus kissed her slow. It took him pulling away for him to realize that he did want something after all. He came back and kissed her like he needed her, pushing her back against the counter with a startling amount of force. Mira let it happen, pawed and pawed at.

She felt the moment he thought about taking her to his bedroom; he started to turn and then he froze completely as he remembered what waited for him in there. She also felt him throw the thoughts away. He delved into kissing her again and got back to the place where he was focused on nothing but her.

His hands gradually found their way onto her skin, his mouth moved to her neck. Though there was still a plethora of violence inside him, he was so much nicer there than Zeref had been, his lips brushing over her body, followed by his tongue, his hands digging into her sides. Mira closed her eyes and didn't think about crimes or revenge or blood. She thought about feeling and then she felt.

When he started pushing his hips into her, Mira took his hand and placed it around her throat. "Squeeze." He barely hesitated, though she had to tell him, "Harder," to make him get to a place where _his_ hand mark would be on her throat rather than Zeref's.

Mira undid her borrowed shirt and let it fall to her elbows. She undid her pants and let them fall to her feet, too. Her underwear she left where they were because they took more effort and Laxus didn't look like he was in a very patient mood, fumbling one-handed with the top of his pants.

Mira batted his hand away and navigated the buttons for him. He crushed his mouth to hers again when his chest was out and the top button of his pants was undone. His hand squeezed tighter around her throat without her having to ask. A sharp thrill moved throughout her body.

Laxus' pants fell around his ankles. He released her neck so he could grab her leg and pulled it up around his waist. Mira leaned back in the indented corner of the counter and spread wide for him. He pushed in around the side of her underwear and set a brutal pace punctuated with sloppy kisses left across her mouth and jawline and throat. She praised him when she could get the breath to do so and dug her grave a little deeper each time she told him, "I love you." He liked it, though, so it was worth the work.

He thrust deep inside and Mira felt him swell. He didn't pull out again for long minutes, his head resting on her shoulder and his breath huffing against her chest. Mira took to brushing his hair back and preening him, all the things she didn't typically do after she took a lover.

"Will you stay for a little while?"

Mira knew he wasn't asking for a few hours. "I'll have to go back for my toothbrush."

He planted a kiss on her shoulder. "I can drive you."

* * *

When Mira entered Purgatory alone, Laxus waiting out in the parking lot, Erza was sitting at the front bar looking beautiful and delicate but deadly like nightshade in a purple and black corset dress built to catch the eye and keep it. A lawyer sat across from her looking uncomfortable with her state of undress. He kept pulling at his tie and looking around the room at the bizarre interior design even while he spoke.

The lawyer's eyes swept left. He noticed Mira and looked relieved.

"Sorry I'm late." She'd actually forgotten entirely. "Family stuff." Sort of.

"No problem, Miss Strauss." He thrust legal documents at her and spewed all of the legal jargon. Lastly, he asked her if she understood. She said yes and put her name on the dotted line. Erza mimicked her. The lawyer gathered up all of his stuff up after and rushed out.

"I don't think he's been in an establishment like Purgatory before," Erza said thoughtfully.

"Or he's unused to scantily clad women seeking legal advice like this," Mira teased. Erza was dressed up, even by her standards. "What's the occasion?"

"I'm going to try to convince Jellal to take the position of enforcer," Erza said casually, like manipulating her lover was no big thing. "We have a hole in our ranks with Gildarts in prison. I think he'll fill it nicely."

"Jellal likes being a police officer," Mira pointed out.

"I suppose we'll see if he likes me or policing more."

Mira knew Erza would only be satisfied with one answer and hoped for Jellal's sake, he chose correctly.

She drifted away from Erza in what she hoped was a casual way and went upstairs to get her overnight bag. When she returned, Erza was still in the same position, though now she had a bottle of tequila in her hand, open, it's rim at her lips. She missed nothing, immediately spotting Mira's overnight bag. "Are you coming back?"

"Yes."

Some of Erza's tension smoothed. "Good. Everyone will like the idea of me stepping away from the business after the shit with my mother. You're going to be the face of Purgatory, it's important that people see you here."

"Yes, _Tante._ "

"Don't call me that anymore," Erza said. "As far as I'm concerned, that title belongs to you. I'll be here if you need me but I'll have a very hands-off kind of role." Just like her mother.

Mira felt her mouth pulling into the first genuine smile she'd felt in months. " _Tante_ Mira." She wasn't sure if it was as good as _Tante_ Eileen or _Tante_ Erza but she could _make_ it that way.

The door swung open and Jellal sauntered through. The lights were dim and they were hidden by the curve of the stage so he didn't see them immediately. Erza adjusted her breasts and the hem of her dress. "How do I look?"

"Fatal." Mira kissed her cheek. Erza accepted it like a queen accepts praise, cool, confident, and unaffected. "I'll text you later."

Erza never replied, she had eyes only for Jellal.


	26. Chapter 26

**_ XXVI: Jellal _ **

Once Mira had swished past him, Erza slid off the bar and climbed onto the stage. She spent some time wandering around with a tequila bottle in hand, looking at gear and checking cords were properly secured, pretending that she didn't know Jellal was there, watching her.

Her dress was the same colour of bruises, tight and small in every way. Her breasts were precariously perched and her legs were bare of everything but fishnet stockings. He could see the thick hem at the top where they clung to her thighs every time she took a step. She was Jessica Rabbit's incarnation and he felt like the stupid detective watching her.

He came to rest at the edge of the stage, where _Tante_ Alba's dais had been once upon a time. She was gone, though, and Erza had taken over completely, a rosebush in what had once been a garden of hemlock, both dangerous but in their own ways.

She turned and looked down upon him. She didn't try to act surprised or apologetic for making him wait. She came over and crouched down, unashamed, taking him by the lapel of his winter coat, and kissing him by way of hello, something she very rarely did. Her tongue dripped tequila. The bottle pressed into his neck, warmer than his skin after he'd sat in the parking lot for so long, watching Laxus wait for Mira to return, watching the quiet street, watching Purgatory's fluorescent lights zip around a tube shaped like a margarita glass. Watching the _Girls! Girls! Girls!_ sign light up, and beneath that, _Boys! Boys! Boys!_ And below _that,_ was a small printed sign that said _Registered Brothel_ , and had all of Purgatory's information.

His head had been spinning out there and that hadn't stopped much after Laxus peeled out of the parking lot without saying anything to him and he realized that he had to go in.

"Thanks for coming."

"I always want to see you."

He worried he'd pushed too far but Erza expelled her breath and said, "Come up here."

"On stage."

"It's for boys, too," she winked.

He felt suddenly nervous. "Erza—"

She laughed. "Get up here."

How could he honestly say no?

She waited until he was standing equal with her and then she peeled his coat back from his shoulders. It flopped on the ground and stayed there, a dark beige puddle. Her fingers slid from the hollow in his throat to the centre of his chest. "I thought you wanted to talk?" That's how she made it sound on the phone, anyway.

"There's time for that after. I've been thinking about you."

Five simple words worked down through his chest and into his belly and then into the head of his cock. "About?"

"You'll understand better if I show you."

"Please."

Her lips were dark, dark red lifting into a smile, her fingers were mischievous moving over the buttons of his shirt, leaving each undone in their wake. When his chest and his stomach were exposed, she started at the top again and touched his skin, sliding all the way down to the button of his pants. She opened those with a practiced flick of her fingers and peeled them back so he was almost exposed but not quite.

"Do you want some?" She shook the bottle in front of her to emphasize her meaning.

"I could."

Erza commanded, "Get on your knees."

Jellal felt his nervousness fade and dropped down. This was her favourite way to have him, dishevelled and hanging on her every movement. She was buzzed, maybe even drunk, she was smiley and dangerous.

She rested her foot on his shoulder and took off one stocking. Jellal helped her when she got it down around her knee. He tried to throw the fabric aside. Erza took it and used it as leverage, wrapping it around his neck and pulling him in with one hand. Her foot came up and rested against his lips. She dumped tequila down her leg then. Most of it when everywhere, all down Jellal's front, his arms, his back, all over the stage, but some ended where it was supposed to.

Once he'd swallowed, Erza pushed him back and did it again. More ended up down his throat. He thought he shouldn't like it but he was addicted to the expression Erza wore. She looked powerful and mean and ready to do it all over again. He let her but once he'd finished swallowing, he kissed up the side of her ankle to her calve. "This is why you called me here?"

"It's been a hard few days."

That he could attest to. He put his mouth to her knee and then her thigh, guiding her leg over his shoulder. Erza let him find the small panties she wore under her skirt and let him push those aside, too. It was the most control she'd willingly given him all at once and though he was suspicious, he was eager to prove to her that this wasn't so bad, they could have a give and take relationship without one party suffering.

She was wet and soft and exhaled with his tongue against her. She'd never expressly told him what she enjoyed from her lovers, he suspected it was because it made their arrangement seem more permanent if she was telling him how she liked to be pleasured, but he'd watched and he'd learned. It took time and it took effort but every moment was worth it when she came.

She looked proud afterwards, like she'd accomplished something grand rather than been totally satisfied by him. It was her scheming face, he thought. It was disconcerting when Erza donned that. He was wary but not enough to stop and ask what she was grinning so meanly about.

She drank tequila for herself and lowered down into his lap. This seemed to be her favourite way to enjoy herself, on top and in control, hands on her hips to guide her but never at the mercy of a man. Jellal gave up his control, he hadn't much use of it today.

* * *

It was late when Erza finally lifted her head off Jellal's chest and started to rise. Her hair had lost its coiled ringlets and was now scattered across her shoulders. She pushed it back impatiently and fixed her corset, stuffing her breasts back in through the top. They spilled out even more now, he could almost see where they got a dark shade of pink.

"Is Purgatory through now?"

"Why would you ask that?"

He looked around the empty stage. Erza explained, "I transferred ownership to Mira this evening. We're having an _Under New Management_ opening in two days. It's closed to the public for now."

"Mira's Purgatory's new _Tante_?"

She inclined her head.

"Why?" She risked her mother's wrath going behind her back and hiring Mira, she risked their relationship, too, reopening _Tante_ Alba's club with a new name and a new face, and he knew it was important to her, regardless of what she said or how she avoided it. She risked his never speaking to her again only to give it all up just as soon as she could.

"I never wanted to be my mother's heir. I wanted to do my own thing. So, now that she's in prison, I gave Mira the club and I've set aside some time for my own endeavours. I'll be around if she needs me but as far as the public will be concerned, Purgatory is hers."

And she was following directly in _Tante_ Eileen's footsteps. He wasn't brave enough to tell her so.

She stood and fixed her remaining stocking. "Purgatory is actually what I wanted to talk to you about."

"What about it?"

"There's still a place here for you."

"Hm?"

"I'm looking for an enforcer with Gildarts in prison. I still want you."

"That's what the sex and tequila were about? You were trying to soften me to the idea?" She didn't try to look innocent. He determined she was serious. "I'm a _cop,_ Erza."

"You're a suspended cop with a history working in brothels."

"I was a kid with no family and nowhere to go."

"And now you're an adult almost in the exact same position. That can change, though." She geared herself up for what she said next, Jellal watched it happen. "I want you to be mine—like Gildarts was my mother's."

Jellal determined all of the things that that could mean. Her killer, her lover, her confidante. "Do you know what you're asking me to do?" he said after an extended silence. Because he wanted her to explain it to him so there was no room for supposition.

"I'm asking you to help me. I need you. You were built for this work."

_Built for it._ Magnolia's darkest corners were his well before the comforts of warm beds and hot meals. _But_ Tante _Alba stopped that._ She'd given him love and purpose when he thought those things weren't _for_ people like him. " _Tante_ Alba—"

"Paid for you to be a cop but your force has shunned you. You were taken off a case and suspended until your Captain waves her hand and forgives mistakes you couldn't help making." Erza was giving no quarter. "You don't belong with those people. You belong here. With me."

Part of him wanted to agree with her, the part that was still furious with Ultear's decree. The other part that had some time to think things through felt like he could consider Ultear's choice rationally. Major Crimes had done a shitty job, though, in his opinion. They hadn't followed Gray's lead with the dealer, not to confirm the story they'd gotten out of Juvia or Brandish or Angel. They just called Eileen guilty and put her away for it.

She was. She was guilty of so much.

It didn't sit _right_ with him, though. Everyone made mistakes, sure, but the Eileen Belserion he knew was careful. She'd been that way for years and years and had only started slipping up when Erza stepped back into her life. It didn't seem rational she'd make so many sloppy decisions all in a row and for _what_? What was her motive? No one asked these questions, though, and he was told if he asked, a reckoning would come upon him faster than he could blink. This case needed to be _closed_ and Major Crimes were above reproach, apparently.

Erza brushed back the hair in front of his ear. "Does that look mean you're considering my offer?"

"I think you should know I think Major Crimes was hasty putting your mother away."

"Oh?"

"And I think you might be a bad person, _Tante_ Erza."

She never flinched. " _Tante_ Erza _was_ a bad person. _Erza,_ however, is not."

He latched onto her taciturn behaviour; some things never changed. "Did you have a confession you wanted to make?"

"Not even a little."

He looked her in the eye. "The truth always has a way of making itself known."

"Really?" she asked with a straight face and a monotone voice and touched his chest. "Because the last secret we swore to keep between us is still living there."

Sometimes, the memories of that night were so powerful, they almost crippled him. The colour red, the champagne, the hard floor beneath his knees. Waking up to a gunshot and finding his service pistol missing. The lies that came afterwards and the anxiety in the months—no, years—to follow. It had just started to ease when he'd met with Erza again and every mistake came rushing back to him.

"I can't lie anymore, Erza."

She smiled her razor's smile. The one that meant she didn't believe him. He was a wealth of lies when she was involved.

It didn't _have_ to be that way, though. He could do the right thing.

"Did you kill those men and set your mother up?"

"What if I said yes, Jellal? What would you do?"

"I'd have to tell Ultear. The case would be reopened. Your mother's charges dropped, maybe."

"Hm." She sucked on her tooth and examined him. He felt like a bug under a microscope. He remained vigilant, though, and unwavering.

" _Hm_ isn't an answer."

Her expression never changed. "No. It's not. Eileen Belserion committed those murders. Ask any newspaper. And almost any cop." The last was a jab at him but he wasn't biting. Erza's lips lifted. She went across the stage, bare feet padding along, and picked up a card on the ground he hadn't noticed before. When she returned, she lowered onto his lap again overtop of his softening dick and tucked the card into his hand.

Jellal lifted it. "What is this?"

"My contact to get a concealed carry permit. I imagine you'll have an easier time getting it given your professional history. He likes to take that stuff into account."

"I didn't agree but even if I did, going to him wouldn't be right. Flint Ram sells unregistered weapons. The MDP has been trying to shut him down for years."

"He's a _registered_ arms dealer, actually, completely legal, and the one Somnium has used for years. All of her enforcers have been permitted through him and all of their guns have come from him, too. Everything's gone through the right hoops, always."

"A front. He overpays for shipments but hides it in freight fees. Everything looks on the up and up but his shipments are double what he's claimed. The extra he sells on the street."

"You sound so sure."

"He was one of my first cases when I became a detective," Jellal told her.

"And yet, he's wandering the streets, free. He must have been alright."

"I wasn't very good at my job back then."

"Your Captain would probably say you're not very good at your job now." That was delivered with a straight face. Jellal tried to pull away from her. Erza locked her legs around his body and pressed into him. Her breath was heady with the scent of alcohol and warm across his lips. "What I mean is, your talents are _wasted_ on the police. They don't appreciate you. Not like I would." She shimmied against him. She was warm and his body was betraying him, feeling her against his cock like that. "And there are benefits to being a Purgatory enforcer."

"There are benefits to being a cop," Jellal said to escape the purr of her voice.

"Not the same kind of benefits. You'd make your own schedule here, too."

Jellal tried to stay strong. "I get good bonuses."

She kissed his neck. "I'll double them."

"The Christmas parties. They're good."

She kissed his jaw. "We have those."

"And the Secret Santa."

"I'll get you whatever you want for Christmas. That's better than a twenty-dollar stack of condoms Laxus will give you."

"That was one year."

"Five years ago and now it's been every year since. No one else wants to shop for you, you're hard to buy for."

She'd done her research.

With nowhere else to turn, Jellal leaned on the truth. "If I was an enforcer for you, tell me you wouldn't stop this."

"This?"

"Us. Seeing me."

She looked like a rabbit in the headlights. "I see lots of people."

"Not like you see me. It's different between us and if I was here all the time, you'd withdraw so things didn't get too real and pull out."

"It _is_ different between us, and I might think about it. If it's real, though, I might not act on my most base nature."

"I'm pretty sure it's real."

She looked down and her lashes rested against her cheeks. "Me, too."

She kissed him slow and softly. He put his arms around her and she didn't stiffen much. She pressed her palms against his cheek and kissed him deeper. Very quickly, he forgot she was asking him to low-key do all of her most unsavoury work. He took her by the hips and pushed up against her. she sighed. The sigh was chased by his ringtone. She didn't make any indication that she'd heard it. Jellal tried to ignore it, too, but only got to a count of five before he was pulling away from her and searching for his coat. She was giving him a dirty look. Jellal chose not to acknowledge it.

"Captain."

"Are you available to come in?" Ultear greeted.

"When?"

"Now."

He looked up to where Erza was curling her hair, bolts of red silk, over her fingers. She watched him and in that gaze, he saw glimpses of cunning. She could say what she wanted, she wasn't as in love as he was. Some things never changed.

"Jellal?"

"Yeah. Yes. Yes, I can come in," he said.

"Good. I'll see you in a few." Ultear hung up in his ear.

Erza pulled back and stood, allowing him to rise. She watched him get dressed and fixed the collar of his shirt when it was time. Her hand slid down his arm and gripped his. She pressed Flint Ram's card into his hand and told him, "People can be more than one thing."

He thought about her words all the way to the station, and through his meeting with Ultear. He thought about it as his service pistol and badge were returned to him and he thought about it while he sat in a booth at Be Frank's, watching Jenny Realight on-screen report that Zeref Dragneel had been gunned down in his own home.

"I'm glad that's not coming our way." Laxus threw himself into the spot opposite Jellal and flagged down the bartender. She brought him a red beer without his asking. He sucked it back.

"Who's taking it?"

Laxus shrugged. "Dunno. Don't care. I want our next case to be some dickwad that didn't pay his dealer and got dropped in the canal. I want opened," he held up one hand, "And closed," he brought his other hand over and slapped them together. "I want my fucking ego back. What do you want our first case back to be?"

"Erza asked me to be Purgatory's enforcer," Jellal spat out.

Laxus paused with his beer halfway to his mouth. "Oh?"

He felt better having said it aloud. "Yeah."

"What'd you tell her?"

"Nothing yet."

"What are you _going_ to tell her?"

"I don't know."

"What's not to know? It's yes or no."

He was being aggressive, even for Laxus, leaning forward and looking at him challengingly.

"I have to think about it."

Laxus drank most of his beer. He set the glass down, fixing the coaster unnecessarily so he was looking at the table when he said, "I don't want to train a new partner."

It was kind of nice Laxus didn't want him to go. "She said she'd match all my benefits."

"Okay, but the Christmas parties."

The MPD got wild but he thought a place like Purgatory would have some crazy Christmas parties of their own.

Laxus swallowed the last of his beer and got another. He waited until it was in his hand to say very levelly, "You're a cop, Jellal."

"I know."

"You like it."

"Yeah."

"We just had a shit case. It happens."

"I know."

"Besides, you wouldn't like being an enforcer for a place like Purgatory. You'd have to leave all your morals at the door."

"Yeah."

They drank in silence while on the TV, Jenny again went over the details of the murder at Zeref's mansion. She talked about Natsu being in jail and she talked about upheaval on the streets.

Jellal asked, "Did you get funeral arrangements figured out?"

"Saturday at the Kingsmen Funeral Home. We're just going to have an urn, we'll spread it after. Ultear wants it to be a huge thing because he was Captain for so long, have everyone come out in their monkey suits and shit. I wanted it to be quiet but Mira thinks it's a good way to honour him."

"Mm. She's right." Laxus rolled his eyes, prompting Jellal to ask, "How are things going with her?"

Laxus said, "She moved in. Temporarily. I don't know. I might ask her to stay." Jellal lifted his eyebrow. Laxus' neck got red. "It's kind of nice. The house doesn't seem so empty."

"Good."

"Erza likes Beau, eh?"

"I'm not gossiping with you."

"Men don't gossip."

"Right. So stop prying and drink your fucking beer," Jellal said without much heat.

* * *

Jellal was well asleep when he heard his apartment door open. It was early enough that the sky was a dusky pink. Beau leapt off the bed and went to investigate. She came back without barking and Jellal invited Erza into his bed. She chose to lay under him once she was sure he was awake and receptive.

She didn't push him on Flint Ram and he didn't broach the subject, accepting her need for attention and giving it. She lay down beside him after they were both spent and fell asleep with her head mostly on his chest. He thought he could be happy if he tried. He could have this always. He didn't ask her what happened if he denied her offer.

_Maybe nothing._ Or maybe she'd push him aside and find another enforcer to take into her bed to ensure they were loyal only to her.

A text came through his phone, lighting up the small bedroom. Jellal reached for it and saw that again, Ultear was on him. She'd texted him an address of a murder. Laxus' name popped up on screen before he was finished looking it up on his Maps app. He said simply, _I'll meet you at the station._

Jellal looked toward Erza. Her eyes were open and her mouth was just a little bit curved. "Police work?"

"Yeah."

She reached for him and brought him down to her mouth for the goodbye kiss she was always shy with. "Good luck."

He came to the same conclusion Erza had already: he hadn't agreed to be Purgatory's enforcer but he hadn't _not,_ either, and she was in it for the long haul. It was going to be a long and brutal war.


	27. Chapter 27

**_XXVII: Juvia_ **

The receptionist recognized her, that was obvious by her wide eyes and frozen smile, though she didn't say anything other than a friendly greeting and the regular questions. _Who are you looking for_? Juvia spat out his name and the woman tapped on her keyboard. "He's in ICU still."

"Oh."

"Are you family?"

There was only one right answer. Juvia lied. She was so good at it, there was barely any hesitation. "I'm his daughter." He was old enough it was plausible.

He had a very secret life so the receptionist didn't question her. "Go to the ICU, the nurse there will direct you." She didn't even ask if Juvia knew where she was going, she knew she did, she'd spent many days here herself, strung out and close to dead.

Hospitals made her uncomfortable. People coughed and moaned and depending on what floor you were on, that moan went to a breathless scream that lifted up from peoples' mouths and literally went nowhere, like it was too weighed down by their pain. Sometimes, people wandered around with their bony bodies and their half-dead eyes, in hospital gowns limp from sweat. Sometimes, they looked at her and Juvia would think, _that's me. That's what Gray sees when he comes to see me._ If he did. He had the first three times she'd ended up there. The last two he diligently stayed away.

She thought things would be different now.

 _Of course they will be_. Because she wasn't going to be one of those people anymore.

The ICU was held back from the rest of the hospital buy huge glass doors painted on with red letters. _Intensive Care Unit._ And under that, _Authorized Persons Only._

There was a big red button that said, _Push for entry._ She used the fat part of her palm to depress it. A voice came through the speaker, asking her the same things that the receptionist did. Juvia told the same lies. The door opened with an exhausted gasp and stale, sick air rushed into the main hospital. Juvia breathed shallowly and entered.

While the hospital was full of human noises, here was near silent except for the whirr of life-preserving machines and the sweep of nurses' slippered feet over tiled floors.

A large male nurse appeared in front of her. Fluorescent lights gave his dark skin a warm gleam. "This way, Miss Fernandez."

She stumbled over the name Acnologia kept secret. He was facing the other way, though, and didn't catch her surprise. Juvia schooled her face and caught up to him.

Many of the patients were blocked from the main floor by yellow curtains that hung from the ceiling. It was supposed to be an uplifting colour but after years of being washed and reused, the colour had bled out of them and now they looked sickly, too.

The nurse bypassed all of those beds for one along the far wall, behind a glass door. Money could get you anything, even privacy in Magnolia's best and busiest hospital.

"He just got off intubation so speaking will be difficult. Try not to stay too long, he has a long road to recovery and most of that will be spent sleeping."

"Okay."

The doors scraped open and cool air hit her in the face. It smelled like alcohol and waste. Juvia stepped in and soon enough, she couldn't smell the difference.

Acnologia lay flat back on his bed with his head turned toward the window. One of the nurses had opened the drapes for him, and the window a crack, too, which explained the cool air.

"You'll catch a cold."

He turned his neck like a tinman and faced her. He'd always been cabalistic; injury hadn't changed that. " _Bella_." The nurse had been right; his voice was wheezy from the intubation tube.

Juvia set her awkwardness aside and came to his bedside. She sat on the side where _Tante_ Eileen's bullet hadn't punctured and adjusted his blankets around his shoulders.

"You saved my life."

"I did what anyone would do."

Acnologia shook his head. "Not anyone. This city would see me dead, but you didn't run when you could have."

"You shouldn't speak so much," Juvia advised. "You'll hurt yourself."

He waved her off. "I want to reward you."

She imagined what Acnologia's rewards were. Cocaine slipping down her throat, throbbing through her veins, making her skin too tight, too hot, too brittle.

"When I get out, come work at _Prodiguer._ "

"At your restaurant?"

" _Sì_."

"But Purgatory…"

One of his dark brows pushed up and Juvia stumbled. "Do you have an obligation to _Tante_ Mira?"

"No, but _Tante_ Erza—"

"Is no longer _Tante,_ I heard."

"I suppose. What would I do for you?"

"I would have you manage my clientele. You understand the business."

"Which side of your business?"

"You tell me. Anything for the woman that saved my life."

She imagined no longer waitressing in a lively nightclub and no longer taking men upstairs to the Forget-me-Not room. She imagined still being surrounded by Acnologia's drugs.

"This will be good for your family. And for you," he promised.

Which prompted her not to decline but to ask, "And my pay?"

"It will reflect my gratitude."

She imagined, too, being able to get Aria anything she needed. She imagined not needing Gray to carry all of every burden. What she wouldn't give. "Okay."

He did not smile, but Acnologia almost never did.

The nurse walked by and gave Juvia a pointed look. "I think they want me to leave." He sighed and looked out the window again until Juvia said, "I'll come back."

He didn't say _good,_ and he didn't say _don't,_ so she had to assume that meant _alright_. She kissed his cheek and squeezed his hand.

* * *

Early spring sunlight filtered through forked and leafless branches, mottling the wet sidewalks. Juvia's feet splashed through icy puddles of the late snow; it streaked up her boots, leaving salty stains on the black leather.

There wasn't far to go, Gray's truck was parked at the end of the MPD parking lot, and open. She climbed into the passenger's seat and waited for him to be finished work. It took an extra forty-five minutes after his shift's supposed end for him to return. He looked into the truck, obviously expecting to see her there but surprised when expectation turned into reality.

He came inside with a breath of cold air. He smelled like sweat and stale cigarette smoke, not his but whosever he'd arrested that day. "Hey."

"Hi." He skipped right over the part where it was weird that Juvia picked right back up where they'd left off four years ago, surprising him at work by waiting for him in his truck, and kissed her like he used to.

"You're late."

"We made a bust, it was a pretty big deal."

"That's okay." They were always waiting for each other, it's what they did.

He put the key in the ignition but didn't start the truck.

"What is it?"

"I missed this."

"Me, too."

He cranked the key and the starter told the alternator to turn. The truck roared to life and cold air blasted out of the heating vents. They sat in silence until the air got warm, then Gray depressed the break and put the truck in drive. Juvia leaned her head back against the window and watched him. He still looked tired, he needed a shave, too, and was out-of-sorts after a long shift, settling out of the stress of his job and into the stress of his life.

If he was any other way, she didn't think she'd love him as much.

The truck made a turn Juvia wasn't expecting. She let it happen silently. As she let Gray pull into a motel lot and park outside of one of the buildings. He didn't look at her as he got out and went into the reception building. He came back a moment later with a key and unlocked the door ahead of them. Juvia watched him go inside. He left the door open for her, expecting her to follow.

They always did that, too, even when it was bad for them.

Gray was sitting on the bed, taking his shoes off. Juvia watched him, a little resentful, a little grateful. What would she do if they just swung right back into the way things were before? Maybe be happy. Maybe have a meltdown and turn right back to her old lifestyle.

Gray pushed his hair back from his forehead so he could see her properly. "I don't want to confuse Aria."

"Or me."

"You still need help."

She made fists and dug her nails into the palms of her hands. "I know."

"I want to be here for you, though."

"Just in two-star motel rooms."

He filled his lungs and held out his hand. She went to him and Gray tugged her in between his legs and kissed her. He always kissed her like he really meant it.

His fingers went inside her shirt and up to her bra. Even when she was mad at him, she wanted his hands on her. She left her clothes on the floor, and his, too. He pulled her onto his lap on the edge of the bed and settled inside of her. Juvia kept him and the urge to cry close. She wouldn't let either out of her grasp.

He took her hips and moved her at a leisurely pace that was atypical of their encounters like he was savouring it. His mouth barely left hers and if it did, it was to settle on her collarbone. His arms wrapped around her back almost twice, he was able to cross them and grab her hips on either side. They were closer this way, but it made Juvia very aware of her body, the bones that stuck out. They were less noticeable now than even days ago, she'd made a concerted effort to eat more and more frequently when she wasn't at the mercy of withdrawal, but they were still much too obvious.

Gray didn't like them, she knew it, but he didn't shy away from them, either, putting his hands wherever he pleased without hesitation or apology. She loved him for that, too.

When it was time, he put his mouth back on hers and came inside of her. Juvia savoured the sensation. She hadn't had him like this in years.

They remained like that for a long time. Juvia put her cheek against his shoulder. His skin was cool. "I miss Aria."

"We can set up days for you to see her again."

"And you."

He told her, "I never lock my truck."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for reading, everyone! Hope you enjoyed!


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